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I 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  AT  LOS  ANGELES 

THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamp'"  ■" 

I 


SOUTHERN  BRANCH, 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA, 

LIBRARY, 

«UJS  ANUELES,  CALIF, 


A    STUDY  OF 

WOMEN  DELINQUENTS 

IN  NEW  YORK  STATE 


publications  of  tbe  Bureau  of  Social  IfD^giene 

A  Study  of 

Women  Delinquents 

in  New  York  State 

BY 
MABEL  RUTH  FERNALD 

Assistant  Professor  of  Psychology,  University  of  Minnesota; 
Formerly  Director,  Laboratory  of  Social  Hygiene 

MARY  HOLMES  STEVENS  'HAYES 

Member  of  The  Scott  Company;    Formerly  Psychologist, 
Laboratory  of  Social  Hygiene 


ALMENA  DAWLEY 

Supervisor,  Department  of  Social  Investigation,  Pennsylvania  School  for 
Social  Service;  Formerly  Sociologist,  Laboratory  of  Social  Hygiene 

With  Statistical  Chapter  by 

BEARDSLEY  RUML 

Assistant  to  the  President,  Carnegie  Corporation; 
Secretary,  The  Scott  Company 

Preface   by 

KATHARINE  BEMENT  DAVIS 

General  Secretary,  Bureau  of  Social  Hygiene 


>.-i^,>v^l^<"'t^'" 


NEW  YORK 

THE  CENTURY  CO. 

1920 

49119 


Copyright,  1920,  by 
The  Century  Co. 


lo  DA-  ^ 

AUTHORS'   NOTE 

To  a  peculiar  degree  the  investigation  of  which  this  book  is  the 
report  was  a  composite  piece  of  work,  the  difficulties  and  problems  of 
which  were  shared  by  all  the  individuals  of  the  group  concerned  in 
its  accomplishment.  It  would  be  impossible  to  acknowledge  with  any 
adequacy  the  special  contribution  which  each  person  made.  We  may, 
however,  indicate  the  general  lines  along  which  the  work  was  divided. 
The  following  members  of  the  staff  were  responsible  for  the  psycho- 
logical examinations :  Mary  H.  S.  Hayes,  Mabel  R.  Fernald,  Jessie  J. 
Taft,  Buford  J.  Johnson,  Margaret  V.  Cobb.  The  task  of  social  in- 
vestigation was  carried  through  by  the  following:  Almena  Dawley 
(in  charge  of  investigations  for  Bedford  and  Auburn),  Virginia  P. 
Robinson  (in  charge  of  investigations  for  the  city  institutions),  Veda 
Elvin,  Marie  Lawrence,  Mabel  C.  Huschka,  Grace  Massonneau,  Maude 
W.  Moore.  The  general  plan  of  statistical  treatment  was  mapped 
out  by  Beardsley  Ruml,  who  acted  as  consultant  on  statistical  problems 
arising  throughout  the  study.  The  detailed  work  of  statistical  analysis 
and  computation  was  under  the  supervision  of  Mary  A.  Clark.  The 
following  members  of  the  staff  assisted  in  this  phase  of  the  work: 
Agnes  Crowley,  Christine  Brigham,  Helen  Towey,  Marjorie  Taft, 
Louise  Russell. 

For  the  statements  as  actually  formulated  in  this  book,  the  three 
authors  assume  entire  responsibility.  While  there  has  been  necessarily 
much  overlapping  of  work  in  the  compilation  of  the  book.  Miss  Dawley 
was  mainly  responsible  for  the  sociological  portions,  Mrs.  Hayes  and 
Miss  Fernald  for  the  psychological. 

We  have  noted  in  Chapter  H  our  indebtedness  to  the  authorities 
in  the  various  institutions  who  made  possible  this  investigation  through 
their  interest  and  cooperation. 


PREFACE 

So  long  as  prisons  were  used  merely  for  the  purpose  of  punish- 
ment or  for  holding  in  safety  those  who  were  dangerous  to  society, 
the  behavior  of  prisoners  was  a  matter  of  relatively  small  importance. 
They  could  be  kept  in  subjection  by  force  if  necessary  and  tractability 
on  their  part  was  desirable  chiefly  because  it  made  life  easier  for 
those  in  charge. 

With  the  coming  of  the  reformatory  and  the  adoption  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  indeterminate  sentence  and  release  on  parole  behavior  within 
the  institution  assumed  supreme  importance.  This  could  not  be  other- 
wise for  there  were  no  other  criteria  in  the  hands  of  prison  authorities. 
If  a  prisoner  were  obedient,  observed  all  rules  cheerfully,  was  respect- 
ful to  his  superiors,  in  the  institutional  school  showed  himself  willing 
to  learn,  in  the  shop  or  at  other  tasks  worked  faithfully  and  more  or 
less  well,  if  he  expressed  to  his  spiritual  adviser  contrition  for  his 
wrong  doing  and  his  resolve  to  amend  his  ways,  he  was  a  "good 
prisoner."  Another  prisoner  "kicked  against  the  pricks"  from  the 
moment  of  entrance ;  he  was  moody  or  sullen,  or  quick  tempered,  or 
stupid,  or  resentful,  disrespectful  to  his  keepers,  quarrelsome  among 
his  mates.  He  was  unwilling  to  take  advantage  of  any  opportunities 
for  self -improvement,  possibly  he  exhibited  not  only  no  inclination  to 
learn  but  showed  absolute  incapacity  for  so  doing.  He  was  a 
malingerer  or  he  did  his  work  so  poorly  that  no  one  wanted  him 
in  the  gang.  He  was  a  "bad  prisoner."  The  former  received  privileges 
within  the  institution  and  an  early  parole.  The  latter  was  held  and 
daily  became  a  worse  prisoner  until  the  time  came  when  under  the 
law  he  had  to  be  released.  Sometimes,  not  infrequently,  the  "good 
prisoner"  failed  to  make  good  outside.  Sometimes  to  the  surprise 
of  the  authorities  the  "bad  prisoner"  made  good.  Such  disappointments 
and  surprises  could  have  but  one  effect.  Slowly  but  surely  there 
dawned  the  recognition  of  the  need  of  an  intensive  study  of  the 
individual,  not  only  of  his  behavior  in  the  institution  but  why  his 
behavior  was  what  it  was.  What  were  the  causes  of  which  his  behavior 
was  the  symptom  ? 

When  the   first  reformatories   for  adults   opened  their  doors   we 


viii  PREFACE 

had  no  such  thing  as  appHed  psychology.  Psychology  did  not  concern 
itself  with  practical  problems  of  behavior  but  restricted  itself  to 
theoretic  discussions  on  mental  processes  and  the  like.  To  be  sure 
we  had  alienists,  but  there  was  little  recognition  of  those  peculiar  men- 
tal conditions  which  do  not  amount  to  insanity,  but  which  if  not  treated 
make  their  victims  unfit  for  society  outside  or  inside  the  prison.  There 
was  no  such  thing  as  a  science  of  sociolog>%  nor  any  hint  of  the  need 
of  careful  study  of  the  pre-institutional  life  of  the  prisoner  with  a 
view  to  understanding  him. 

In  a  number  of  states  we  had  schools  and  asylums  for  the  feeble- 
minded but  much  more  was  expected  from  education  of  these  per- 
sons than  has  been  shown  by  experience  to  be  possible.  That  the 
feeble-minded  were  not  suitable  inmates  of  a  reformatory  was  recog- 
nized as  early  as  the  First  Annual  Report  of  the  Reformatory  Prison 
for  Women  at  Sherborn,  Mass.,^  when  the  managers  recommended 
''changes  in  existing  laws''  authorizing  the  transfer  of  certain  unsuit- 
able persons  committed  for  minor  offenses,  who  among  other  things 
were  "weak  minded." 

New  York  State  in  establishing  its  reformatory  institutions  for 
women  sought  to  profit  by  the  experience  of  the  two  other  institutions 
for  women  by  providing  in  the  State  Charities  Law  that  Boards  of 
Managers  might  return  to  committing  judges  any  person  who  "is  insane 
or  mentally  incapable  of  being  materially  benefited  by  the  discipline 
of  the  institution."  The  difficulties  of  securing  her  admission  to 
crowded  custodial  institutions  and  the  undesirability  of  turning  her 
back  into  a  community  in  which  she  had  already  proved  herself  a 
social  menace,  together  with  differences  of  opinion  as  to  whether 
in  a  given  case  a  woman  was  so  far  incapacitated  as  to  be  "mentally 
incapable  of  being  materially  benefited"  have  worked  together  to 
prevent  in  our  own  state  the  relief  which  was  intended  for  the  reforma- 
tories. In  other  types  of  institutions  and  in  many  other  states  there 
is  not  even  this  possibility  of  transfer. 

The  Laboratory  of  Social  Hygiene  maintained  for  six  years  by 
the  Bureau  of  Social  Hygiene  in  codperation  with  the  State  Reforma- 
tory for  Women  at  Bedford  Hills,  grew  out  of  the  recognition  of  a 

'  First  Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioners  and  Advisory  Board  of  the 
Reformatory  Prison  for  Women  at  Sherborn,  Mass.,  Oct.,  1878.  The  Woman's 
Prison  at  Sherborn,  Mass.,  was  the  second  prison  exclusively  for  the  care  of 
women  in  the  United  States.  The  Indiana  Reformatory  for  Women  and  Girls 
opened  in  1873. 


PREFACE  ix 

practical  need  in  the  actual  handling  of  delinquent  women  if  a  max- 
imum number  were  to  be  returned  to  society  prepared  to  lead  a  self- 
supporting,  law-abiding  life.  As  a  result  of  experience  it  was  believed 
that  before  one  could  apply  methods  of  treatment  with  any  certainty 
it  was  necessary  to  have  an  accurate  diagnosis  of  the  individual  case, 
taking  into  consideration  social,  physical  and  mental  factors.  Such 
case  studies  of  the  social  and  mental  aspects  begun  with  the  women  ^ 
committed  to  the  State  Reformatory  at  Bedford  Hills  and  extended 
to  other  groups  of  delinquent  women  in  New  York  State  forms  the 
basis  of  the  work  presented  in  this  volume.  These  case  studies  have 
a  threefold  value.  First  as  pointed  out  above,  their  immediate  prac- 
tical importance  is  in  indicating  the  actual  treatment  of  the  case  within 
the  institution.  If  it  were  possible  to  put  in  use  a  careful  clearing 
house  method  for  treating  the  wards  of  the  state  in  accordance  with 
their  own  needs  and  the  best  interests  of  society  such  case  histories 
would  be  the  proper  basis  of  scientific  classification.  Pending  this 
their  use  is  limited  to  the  special  institution  in  which  the  case  is  studied 
and  to  the  existing  possibilities  of  transfer.  The  value  of  the  pub- 
lication of  case  histories  is  discussed  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  book. 
The  use  of  the  material  determined  upon  for  this  study  does  not  pre- 
clude a  later  publication  of  these  histories. 

Second,  the  value  of  standards  of  comparison  is  clearly  pointed 
out  in  chapter  one.  Although  without  more  extended  studies  of  the 
general  population  we  cannot  make  accurate  comparisons  with  the 
delinquent  groups,  it  is  of  great  importance  to  have  a  standard  by 
which  we  can  measure  the  inmates  within  a  given  institution  or* 
compare  the  inmate  population  of  one  institution  with  another.  Even 
though  this  study  fails  to  show  a  distinct  criminal  type  it  seems  to 
clearly  indicate  that  the  average  woman  prisoner  of  New  York  State 
falls  somewhat  below  the  average  individual  in  society  in  mentality 
and  economic  efficiency. 

Unfortunately  no  comparable  data  of  the  physical  states  of  the 
groups  studied  were  available,  nor  are  there  comparable  studies  of  the 
health  and  physical  condition  of  the  general  population.  A  detailed 
study  of  200  non-selected  individuals  at  the  State  Reformatory  for 
Women  at  Bedford  Hills^  made  prior  to  the  studies  presented  in  this 

*  Physical  States  of  Criminal  Women.  A  study  made  at  the  Laboratory 
of  Social  Hygiene,  Bedford  Hills,  by  Alberta  S.  Guibord,  M.D.,  Journal  of 
Criminal  Law  and  Criminology,  May  i,   1917. 


X  PREFACE 

volume  showed  a  vei"y  liigh  degree  of  physical  deficiencies  "primarily 
to  a  large  extent  preventable  in  that  they  are  the  result  of  faulty 
nutrition,  bad  hygiene,  bacterial  infection  and  other  concomitants 
of  unintelligence  and  poverty." 

Even  if  it  were,  conceivably  possible  to  select  and  study  an  absolutely 
representative  group  of  non-delinquent  w^omen  and  the  results  showed 
the  same,  or  practically  the  same,  averages  and  the  same  dispersion 
of  the  particular  factors,  the  standard  would  still  be  necessary  for  pur- 
poses of  classification  and  discussion. 

A  third  use  to  which  it  was  hoped  our  studies  could  be  put  was 
the  pointing  out  with  greater  definiteness  the  causes  of  delinquency. 
If  any  deductions  can  be  made,  our  studies  would  seem  to  indicate 
the  great  complexity  of  causal  factors  in  individual  cases  as  well  as 
in  the  various  groups. 

It  is  not  possible,  as  yet  at  least,  to  single  out  a  feiif  factors  to 
which  we  can  point  as  predominantly  causative,  whether  these  lie  in  the 
social  and  economic  conditions  which  govern  environment,  public 
health,  education  and  recreation,  or  in  the  constitutional  factors  which 
are  the  most  obvious  in  individual  cases;  but  in  a  study  carefully 
made  we  believe  it  is  not  without  significance  that  no  one  or  two  out- 
standing environmental  or  constitutional  causes  were  discoverable. 

Katharine  Bement  Davis, 
General  Secretary,  Bureau  of  Social  Hygiene. 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  I 

PAGE 

Introduction:     General  Orientation   with    Reference    to 

Problems  AND  Methods  OF  TjiEATMENT     ......         o 

Necessity  of  More  Adequate  Definition  of  Conceptions  Regard- 
ing Women  Delinquents 3 

Inadequacy  of  Material  from  Other  Sources  and  Limitations  on 
Completion  of  Desired  Comparisons  with  Other  Groups  .      .         5 

a.  Comparison  with  Non-delinquent  Women 5 

b.  Comparison  of  Delinquent  Women  with  Delinquent  Men         7 

c.  Intercomparisons  Within  our  Group  of  Delinquent  Women         9 
Use  of  Mass  Methods  of  Treatment  Rather  Than  Case  History 

Methods  in  Present  Study 9 


.  CHAPTER   II 

General  Account  of  Delinquent  Groups  Studied     ...  13 

General  Make-up  of  Group 13 

Descriptive  Account  of  Groups 15 

a.  State  Reformatory  for  Women,  Bedford  Hills,  N.  Y.        .  15 

b.  State  Prison  for  Women,  Auburn,  N.  Y 17 

c.  The  New  York  Magdalen  Home  (Inwood  House)       .      .  20 

d.  The  New  York  County  Penitentiary 20 

e.  The  New  York  City  Workhouse 21 

f.  Probation  Cases  from  Women's  Night  Court  of  Manhat- 

tan and  the  Bronx 25 

Groups  of  Women  of  this  State  Who  Are  Not  Included  in 

Present  Study 25 

Reason  for  Presenting  Data  Classified  by  Institutional  Groups  29 


CHAPTER   III 

Statistical  Methods 31 

The  Description  of  the  Qualities  of  a  Group 32 

Comparisons  and  Relationships 33 

Statistical  Reservations 34 

Technical  Notes 35 

xi 


xii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   IV 

PAGE 

Methods  of  Psychological  Examination 36 

Method  of  Estimation  Versus  Method  of  Examination   ...  36 
Factors  Affecting   Choice  of  Tests  for  Use  in   Examination 

Method 38 

Estabhshment  of  Methods  on  Bedford  Group 39 

a.  Conditions  of  Testing 39 

b.  Standardization  of  Methods  of  Giving  and  of  Scoring 

Tests 41 

c.  Preliminary  Intensive  Test  Series 41 

Selection  of  Tests  for  Present  Investigation 46 

a.  Yerkes-Bridges  Point  Scale  and  Stanford-Binet    ...  47 

b.  Tests  of  the  Woolley  Series 48 

c.  Additional  Tests 49 

Use  of  Pearson  Scale  for  Judging  Mental  Ability  as  Criterion  of 

Reliability  of  Tests  Used 52 

Selection  of  Tests  for  Special  Consideration  in  Present  Study  55 

CHAPTER  V 

Methods  of  Social  Investigation 60 

General  Plan  of  Study  and  Comparison  with  Other  Types  of 

Studies  of  Delinquents 61 

The  Initial  Interview 62 

Method  of  Investigation 71 

a.  General  Procedure  of  Investigation 71 

b.  Form  of  Report  of  Investigation 73 

1.  Information  Concerning  the  Delinquent       ....  74 

2.  Family  History 75 

3.  Correspondence 76 

Summary  of  Data.    Verified  History  Blank.     Method  of  Con- 
densing  Material,    Indicating   Sources   of   Information   and 

Reducing  Work  to  Code  Form  for  Use  on  Statistical  Cards  .  76 

CHAPTER  VI 

Nature  and  Extent  of  Delinquency 84 

Form  of  Classification  of  Offenses 85 

Nature  of  Present  Offense 88 

a.  New  York  City  Police  Department  Classification       .      .  88 

b.  Felonies  and  Misdemeanors 97 

c.  Felonies  and  Misdemeanors  in  New  York  City  Police 

Department  Classification 99 

d.  Comparison  of  Nature  of  Offense  of  Female  Felons  and 

Male  Felons  in  Sing  Sing  and  the  New  York  State 

Reformatory  at  Elmira 100 


CONTENTS  xiii 

PAGE 

Extent  of  Delinquency 102 

a.  Niimber  of  Previous  Convictions 105 

1.  Relationship  Between  Age  and  Number  of  Previous 

Convictions 105 

2.  Institutional  Differences  in  Number  of  Previous  Con- 

victions        107 

3.  Number  of  Previous  Convictions  Among  Felons  and 

Misdemeanants 116 

4.  Number  of   Previous   Convictions  Among   Offenders 

Against  Chastity  and  Offenders  Against  Property    .  119 

b.  Number  of  Previous  Terms  Served  . 121 

c.  Length  of  Time  Served  in  Penal  Institutions  .      .      .      .  122 

d.  Number  of  Times  on  Probation 124 

e.  Recidivists  and  First  Offenders 126 

1.  Recidivists  and  First  Offenders  Among  Institutional 

Groups 126 

2.  Recidivists  and   First  Offenders  Among  Felons  and 

Misdemeanants 126 

3.  Recidivists  and  First  Offenders  Among  Female  Felons 

and  Male  Felons 127 

First  Contacts  with  the  Law 128 

a.  Age  at  First  Conviction 128 

1.  Age  at  First  Conviction  Among  Institutional  Groups  128 

2.  Comparison  with  English  Male  Convicts      .      .      .      .  129 

3.  Age  at  First  Conviction  Among  Felons  and  Misde- 

meanants    131 

4.  Age    at    First    Conviction    Among  Offenders  Against 

Chastity  and  Offenders  Against  Property  Rights      .  131 

5.  Relation  Between  Age  at  First  Conviction  and  Number 

of  Convictions 133 

b.  Nature  of  First  Offense 135 

c.  First  Sentence 139 

d.  Juvenile  Delinquents 140 

CHAPTER  VII 

Miscellaneous  Considerations 147 

Physical  Data: 

a.  Age 147 

b.  Habits:    AlcohoHsm,   Drug  Addiction  and  Use  of  To- 


bacco 


153 


c.     Record  of  Commitments  to  Hospitals  for  the  Insane        .  159 

Certain  General  Social  Factors 161 

a.  Civil  Condition 161 

b.  Age  at  Marriage  and  Age  of  Husband  at  Marriage     .      .  162 

c.  Religion 163 


xiv  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  VIII 

PAGE 

Nativity  and  Color  in  Relation  to  Delinquency     ,     .     .  167 

Birthplace  and  Color  of  Delinquents         168 

a.     Comparison  of  Nativity  and  Color  Between  Delinquent 
Women  and  General  Female  Population  in  New  York 

City 171 

Age  at  Present  Conviction,  Classified  by  Nativity  and  Color    .  174 

Nature  of  Present  Offense 177 

a.     Classified  by  New  York  City  Police  Department  Classi- 
fication       177 

b    Classified  by  Felonies  and  Misdemeanors 180 

Extent  of  Delinquency i8i 

a.  Number  of  Previous  Convictions.     Comparison  of  Dif- 

ferences Among  Nativity  Groups 182 

b.  Recidivists  and  First  Offenders  by  Nativity  Groups  .      .     188 

c.  Relationship  Between  Length  of  Time  in  United  States 

and  Number  of  Previous  Convictions 191 

1.  Number  of  Previous  Convictions  and  Years  in  United 

States 191 

2.  Number  of  Previous  Convictions  and  Age  at  Coming 

to  United  States 191 

First  Contacts  with  the  Law 196 

a.  Age  at  First  Conviction 196 

b.  Nature  of  First  Offense 198 

c.  First  Sentence 201 

CHAPTER   IX 

Significant  Factors  in  Early  Home  Conditions  and  Family 

Status 205 

Method  of  Estimating  Home  Conditions  During  Childhood  and 
Adolescence  and  Distribution  of  Estimates  by  Institutional 
Groups 205 

a.  Estimate  of  Economic  Status  in  the  Home       ....     207 

b.  Estimate  of  Moral  Standards  in  the  Home       .      .      .      .210 

c.  Estimate  of  Parental  Supervision  in  the  Home      .      .      .     212 

d.  Total  Estimate  of  Home  Conditions 214 

e.  Comparison  Between  Verified  and  Unverified  Data  on 

Home  Conditions 216 

f.  Presentation  of  Cases  Representing  Various  Classes  of 

Home  Conditions 219 

g.  Relationship  Between  Estimate  of  Home  Conditions  and 

Age  at  First  Conviction 228 

h.    Relationship  Between  Estimate  of  Home  Conditions  and 

Number  of  Convictions 228 


CONTENTS  XV 

PAGE 

Family  Status •.     .     .     .  228 

a.  Nativity  of  Parents 228 

b.  Age  of  Parents  at  Time  of  Subject's  Birth       ....  231 

c.  Age  of  Subject  at  Time  of  Parents'  Death        ....  232 

d.  Number  of  Children  in  Fraternity 235 

e.  Order  in  Fraternity 237 

f.  Number  of  Full  Term  Children  Born  to  Subject   .      .      .  237 

g.  Number  of  Pregnancies  of  Subjects 238 

Hereditary  Factors.     Defective  Physical  and  Mental  Strains, 

Alcoholism  and  Criminality.     Distribution  by  Institutional 

Groups 240 

CHAPTER  X 

Educational  Background 245 

Views  Regarding  Relation  of  Education  to  Crime      ....  245 
Lack  of  Data  on  Education  for  General  Population  .      .      .      .  249 
Distinction  Between   Educational   Opportunities   and   Educa- 
tional Attainments 250 

Verification  of  School  Record 252 

Educational  Opportunities 254 

a.  Kind  of  School  Attended 254 

b.  Regularity  of  Attendance 255 

c.  Age  at  Leaving  School 256 

1.  Data  on  Institutional  Groups  and  on  Total       .      .      .  257 

2.  Comparative  Data  on  Non-delinquent  Groups  .      .      .  259 

3.  Relationship  Between  Age  at  Leaving  School  and  Age 

at  First  Conviction 261 

d.  Nimiber  of  Years  in  School 264 

1.  Data  on  Total  Delinquent  Group  and  on  Institutional 

Sub-groups 264 

2.  Data  on  Groups  Classified  by  Nativity  and  Color  .      .  265 

3.  Impossibility  of  Comparison  with  General  Population  268 

4.  Relationship  Between  Years  in  School  and  Number  of 

Convictions 270 

Educational  Attainments 270 

a.     Grade  Finished 270 

1.  Data  on  Institutional  Groups  and  on  Total       .      .      .  271 

2.  Data  on  Groups  Classified  by  Nativity  and  Color  .      .  275 

3.  Relationship  of  Grade  to  Age  Distinctions   .      .      .      .  275 

4.  Relationship  of  Grade  to  Age  at  Leaving  School     .      .  278 

5.  Relationship  of  Grade  to  Number  of  Years  in  School  .  280 

6.  Relationship  of  Grade  to  Nature  of  Present  Offense  284 

7.  Relationship  of  Grade  to  Number  of  Previous  Convic- 

tions      '  286 


xvi  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

8.     Relationship  of  Grade  to  Age  at  First  Conviction        .  288 

b.  Amount  of  Illiteracy 288 

c.  Results  of  Educational  Tests 292 

1.  Reading — Trabue  Scale 294 

2.  Spelling — Buckingham 294 

3.  Handwriting^Ayres  Scale 294 

4.  Arithmetic — Courtis 298 


CHAPTER  XI 

Occupational  History  and  Economic  Efficiency  ....  304 

Age  at  Starting  Work 306 

Kind  of  Work  Done 311 

a.  Classification  of  Kind  of  Work 311 

b.  Kind  of  Work  Done  at  Specified  Times 313 

Kind  of  Work  in  First  Job 313 

Kind  of  Work  in  Latest  Job 315 

3.  Kind  of  Work  at  First  Conviction 316 

4.  Kind  of  Work  at  Present  Conviction 317 

5.  Prevailing  Work 318 

c.  Comparison  of  Prevailing  Work  of  Delinquents  and  Gen- 
eral Female  Population 320 

d.  Relationship  Between  Kind  of  Work  and  Grade  Finished  326 
Wage 328 

a.  Wage  Earned  at  Specified  Times 330 

1.  Wage  in  First  Job 330 

2.  Wage  in  Latest  Job 335 

3.  Wage  at  First  Conviction 337 

4.  Wage  at  Latest  Conviction 339 

5.  Average  Wage  for  Prevailing  Work 341 

b.  Relationship  Between  Average  Wage  and  Social  Factors  348 

1.  Relationship  Between  Average  Wage  and  Grade  Fin- 
ished      348 

2.  Relationship  Between  Average  Wage  and  Number  of 
Convictions 351 

c.  Brief  Comparison  with  Wage  of  Certain  Groups  in  Gen- 
eral Population 358 

Estimate  of  Regularity  of  Work.    Distribution  for  Institutional 

Groups  and  by  Nativity  and  Color 361 

Total  Estimate  of  Work  Record 364 

a.  Distribution  for  Institutional  Groups 368 

b.  Distribution  for  Nativity  Groups 369 

c.  Relationship  to  Factors  within  Work  Record  .      .      .      .370 

d.  Relationship  to  Other  Social  Factors 372 


CONTENTS  xvii 
CHAPTER  XII 

PAGE 

History  of  Sex  Irregularities 380 

First  Sex  Experiences 380 

a.  Age  at  First  Sex  Offense.     Distribution  by  Institutional 

and  Nativity  Groups 380 

b.  Rape  or  Consent 381 

c.  Sex  Instruction 383 

Extent  of  Sexual  Irregularity 385 

a.  Percentages  of  Prostitutes,  Those  Sexually  Irregular  (Not 

for  Money),   Occasional  Sex  Offenders  and  Non-sex 
Offenders.     Distribution  by  Institutional  and  Nativity 

Groups 385 

b.  Length  of  Time  in  Prostitution 389 

c.  Length  of  Time  Sexually  Irregular 390 

Special  Study  of  Prostitutes 391 

a.  Age  at  Entering  Prostitution  by  Institutional  and  Nativ- 

ity Groups.     Relationship  to  Number  of  Convictions, 

Grade  Finished  and  Home  Conditions 391 

b.  Consideration  of  Other  Social  Factors  in  Lives  of  Prosti- 

tute Group 400 

Venereal  Disease              408 

CHAPTER  XIII 

Mental  Capacity:    Comparison  with  the  General  Popula- 
tion    413 

Comparison  Based  on  Stanford-Binet 416 

Comparison  Based  on  Yerkes-Bridges  Point  Scale     ....  424 

Comparison  by  Means  of  Woolley  Series 432 

CHAPTER  XIV 

Mental  Capacity  :    Inter-Comparison  of  Delinquent  Groups  435 

Comparison  of  Groups  Considered  in  Present  Investigation       .  435 

a.  Comparison  of  Total  English-speaking  Portions  of  Groups  437 

b.  Comparison   of    Institutional    Groups:     White   Women 

.Only  .      .       • 443 

Comparison  of  Our  Delinquent  Groups  with  Others        .      .      .  447 

a.  Bedford  and  Albion  Reformatories 447 

b.  Bedford  Reformatory  and  Chicago  House  of  Correction  449 

c.  Auburn  Women  and  Auburn  Men 450 

d.  New  York  Penitentiary  Women  and  Ohio  Penitentiary 

Men 455 

e.  Workhouse  Women  (New  York)  and  Workhouse  Men 

(Ohio) 456 


xviii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XV 

PAGE 

Mental   Capacity:     Related   to   Various    Factors   Which 

Affect  the  Delinquent  Group 460 

Mental  Capacity  in  Relation  to  Criminal  Career       ....  460 

a.  Mental  Capacity  and  Nature  of  Offense 460 

b.  Mental  Capacity  and  Extent  of  Criminal  Record       .      .  464 

c.  Mental  Capacity  and  Factors  Connected  with  Beginnings 

of  Criminal  Career 470 

Mental  Capacity  in  Relation  to  General  Factors        ....  480 

a.  Mental  Capacity  and  Age 480 

b.  Mental  Capacity  and  Classification  by  Color  and  Nativity  480 

c.  Mental  Capacity  and  Use  of  Drugs  and  Alcohol   .      .      .  485 
Mental  Capacity  in  Relation  to  Home  Conditions     ....  489 

a.  Mental  Capacity  and  Estimate  of  Home  Conditions  .      .  489 

b.  Mental  Capacity  and  Hereditary  Factors 491 

Mental  Capacity  in  Relation  to  Educational  Background    .      ,  493 

Menta,l  Capacity  in  Relation  to  Work  Record 498 

a.  Mental  Capacity  and  Age  at  Starting  Work    ....  498 

b.  Mental  Capacity  and  Kind  of  Work 500 

c.  Mental  Capacity  and  Wage 504 

d.  Mental  Capacity  and  Estimates  of  Work  Record        .      .  507 
Mental  Capacity  in  Relation  to  Sex  History 510 

a.  Mental  Capacity  and  Age  at  First  Sex  Offense      .      ,      .  510 

b.  Mental  Capacity  and  Classification  as  Sex  Offenders       .  512 

c.  Mental  Capacity  and  Venereal  Disease    ' 516 

d.  Mental  Capacity  and  Age  at  Entering  Prostitution    .      .  519 

CHAPTER  XVI 

Summary  and  Conclusions 524 

Bibliography 531 

Index 537 


A   STUDY  OF 

WOMEN  DELINQUENTS 

IN  NEW  YORK  STATE 


STUDY  OF  WOMEN   DELINQUENTS  IN 
NEW  YORK  STATE 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION:     GENERAL   ORIENTATION   WITH   REF- 
ERENCE TO  PROBLEMS  AND  METHODS  OF 
TREATMENT 

SOME  knowledge  of  the  characteristics  of  those  who  make  up  the 
criminal  and  delinquent  population  of  any  country  seems  a  slight 
thing  to  demand  as  a  prerequisite  for  the  development  of  adequate 
methods  of  handling  the  problem  which  this  group  represents.  The 
recognition  of  this  demand  as  elementary  may  account  for  the  fact 
that  ready  generalizations  regarding  the  criminal  have  been  so  abun- 
dant. The  work  of  Lombroso  introduced  certain  tendencies  which  had, 
at  least,  not  been  clearly  defined,  in  connection  with  earlier  expressions 
of  opinion.  In  the  first  place,  these  earlier  statements  made  no  pre- 
tense of  being  scientific  in  the  sense  of  being  based  on  investigation,  an 
ipse  dixit  being  considered  quite  sufficient  to  establish  their  claims. 
Lombroso  introduced  at  least  the  appearance  of  investigation,  puerile 
though  it  was  for  the  most  part.  In  the  second  place,  these  accounts 
were  offered,  in  the  main,  merely  as  descriptive  literature  of  some  in- 
terest to  the  general  population,  but  not  as  the  basis  on  which  the 
treatment  of  the  criminal  should  be  determined.  The  insistence  upon^ 
the  fact  that  the  understanding  of  the  criminal  should  play  a  larger 
part  in  determining  his  treatment  than  should  the  facts  concerning  his 
crime,  constitutes  Lombroso's  great  achievement ;  an  achievement 
which  stands  even  after  it  has  become  clear  that  the  majority  of  the 
conclusions  which  he  proffered  are  unsound. 

NECESSITY  OF   MORE  ADEQUATE  DEFINITION  OF  CONCEPTIONS  REGARDING 
WOMEN  DELINQUENTS 

There   is   at   present   abundant   literature   regarding  the   criminal 
group,  much  of  which  is  not  even  worth  citing  because  it  rests,  at  its 

3 


4        STUDY  OF  W0M]<:N  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

best,  upon  the  most  casual  and  superficial  observation  and  at  its  worst 
upon  what  the  writer  thinks  he  would  find  on  observation.  Possibly 
no  great  harm  was  done  by  reliance  upon  such  generalizations,  when 
little  attention  was  paid  to  the  treatment  of  either  men  or  women  of- 
fenders, the  problem  of  their  incarceration  being  considered  as  solved 
if  two  demands  were  met,  viz.:  the  demand  of  punishment  for  the 
crime  and  the  demand  of  protection  of  the  state  from  further  crimes. 
With  the  development  within  recent  years,  first,  of  an  insistence  on 
humanitarian  treatment  of  the  criminal  merely  on  the  ground  that  he 
is  a  "human  being"  ^  and,  more  recently,  of  a  tendency  to  insist  that 
the  penal  institutions  must  be  thought  of  as  places  for  readjust- 
ment of  individuals  to  society,  it  becomes  of  primary  importance  to 
know  of  what  nature  this  human  material  is.  The  system  of  penal 
institutions  of  any  state  and  the  plan  of  administration  of  each  given 
institution  are  determined,  in  part  at  least,  by  certain  conceptions  re- 
garding the  persons  who  are  to  be  handled.  These  conceptions  may 
be  vague  and  unformulated,  or  they  may  be  definite  and  dogmatically 
propounded.  In  either  case  they  form  one  important  element  in  the 
determination  of  procedure  and  so  become  of  practical  importance. 

The  acceptance  of  this  point  of  view  has  become  almost  universal 
among  those  who  interest  themselves  in  modern  penology  from  either 
its  theoretical  or  its  more  practical  aspects.  As  has  been  indicated 
in  the  preface,  the  Laboratory  of  Social  Hygiene  was  a  direct  out- 
growth of  Dr.  Davis'  conviction  regarding  the  importance  of  a  more 
intelli'^ent  study  of  delinquent  women,^  a  conviction,  it  should  be  noted, 
which  represented  a  plea  for  more  information  from  one  who  was 
daily  in  personal  contact  with  such  women  and  constantly  facing  the 
practical  problems  of  their  management.  More  recently  we  find  Os- 
borne, who  likewise  approached  the  problem  from  the  practical  side, 
making  the  following  statement : 

"To  lay  the  foundation  of  a  new  and  genuinely  scientific  penology, 
we  must  make  absolutely  clear  to  ourselves  the  real  nature  and  char- 
acter of  the  men  who  populate  our  prisons;  there  must  be  no  uncertainty 
in  the  minds  of  any  of  us  as  to  what  is  meant  when  we  refer  to  'criminals,' 
'convicts,'  or  'prisoners.'  "  " 

^  The  work  of  Elizal)eth  Frye  in  England  represented  the  most  significant 
development  of  the  humanitarian  trend  as  applied  to  women   delinquents. 

^  See  Davis,  Katliarine  Bement.  "The  Rational  Treatment  of  Women  Con- 
victed of  Crime  in  the  Courts  of  New  York  City." 

'  Osborne,  Thomas  Mott.  "Society  and  Prisons,"  p.  IS,  Yale  University 
Press,  1916. 


PROBLEMS  AND  METHODS  OF  TREATMENT  5 

Instances  indicative  of  the  same  point  of  view  could  be  multiplied 
by  reference  to  the  discussions  of  any  of  the  many  conferences  called 
for  the  consideration  of  penal  problems.  It  has  show^n  itself  in  most 
important  fashion,  also,  by  the  actual  introduction  into  prisons,  re- 
formatories, juvenile  institutions,  and  courts  of  experts  capable  of 
carrying  out  investigations  designed  to  throw  more  light  on  the  char- 
acter of  the  individuals  under  observation. 

The  purpose  of  the  present  study  may  be  stated  as  an  attempt  to 
furnish  a  scientific  basis  for  the  conceptions  regarding  woman  of- 
fenders, through  an  investigation  concerning  the  distinguishing  char- 
acteristics of  women  convicted  of  either  serious  crimes  or  minor 
offenses  in  New  York  State.  It  has  not  been  our  object  either  to 
defend  any  specific  thesis  or  to  combat  established  ideas  regarding 
the  characteristics  of  these  woman.  We  have  merely  aimed  to  deter- 
mine, so  far  as  possible,  the  facts. 

INADEQUACY  OF   MATERIAL   FROM   OTHER  SOURCES  AND   LIMITATIONS   ON 
COMPLETION    OF  DESIRED  COMPARISONS    WITH    OTHER  GROUPS 

Our  efforts  were  directed  first  toward  making  a  survey  of  the 
group  of  women  delinquents  under  consideration,  with  a  view  to  secur-  ^ 
ing  as  much  information  as  possible  with  regard  to  their  mental  capaci- 
ties and  the  main  facts  of  their  personal  and  environmental  histories. 
With  that  material  at  hand  we  have  attempted  to  make  such  compari- 
sons as  might  be  enlightening  on  the  basis  of  our  own  data,  and  also 
such  other  comparisons  as  were  made  possible  by  the  data  available 
as  the  result  of  other  investigations.  In  this  study,  physical  and 
medical  facts  have  been  almost  entirely  disregarded  since  the  condi- 
tions of  our  inquiry  have  been  such  as  to  make  impossible  the  securing 
of  adequate  medical  data  for  most  of  the  groups  studied.  Though  we 
recognize  this  omission  as  unfortunate,  it  has  seemed  to  us  preferable 
to  have  our  study  incomplete  in  this  direction  rather  than  to  use 
information  so  inadequate  that  misleading  conclusions  might  be  drawn. 

The  first  comparison  which  seems  called  for  is  that  between  our 
group  of  women  delinquents  and  women  in  general,  to  determine 
whether  the  group  of  delinquent  women  represents  in  any  of  its 
aspects,  a  special  selection  out  of  the  general  female  population,  or 
whether  we  may  think  of  them  as  a  mere  random  sample  from  the 
total,  differentiated  at  present  by  their  criminal  careers  but  not  other- 
wise. Specifically,  we  wish  to  know,  for  example,  whether  the  delin-  [ 
quent  group  is  markedly  different  in  respect  to  mentality  or  whether 


6        STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

it  merely  shows  distribution  of  high  and  low  mentality  around  a  central 
tendency  with  no  significant  difference  from  the  distribution  of  the 
general  population.  Similarly,  we  wish  to  know  whether  those  who 
break  the  law  have  differed  markedly  from  the  sum  total  of  women  in 
their  general  environmental  background  as  represented  by  their  early 
home  conditions,  their  educational  opportunities,  the  economic  stress 
to  which  they  have  been  subjected,  and  numerous  other  conditions 
which  have  acted  upon  them.  Again,  they  should  be  compared  with 
the  whole  female  population  with  reference  to  physical  condition  and 
the  presence  or  absence  of  disturbing  hereditary  factors.  Such  a  com- 
parison of  the  delinquent  group  with  the  whole  population  of  women 
is  obviously  of  first  importance  for  the  determination  of  the  signifi- 
cance to  be  attached  to  these  various  conditions  as  causative  factors 
in  connection  with  criminality.  In  fact,  one  of  the  great  sources  of 
fallacy  in  the  literature  concerning  pathological  conditions  of  all  kinds, 
whether  medical  or  social,  has  been  the  tendency  to  study  only  the 
deviating  group  and  to  assume  that  conditions  present  here  in  large 
numbers  have  been  factors  occasioning  the  abnormality  of  the  group, 
without  first  determining  whether  they  may  not  be  present  in  equal 
measure  in  an  unselected  sample  of  the  general  population. 

A  mere  recital  of  some  of  the  factors  which  it  is  important  to  study 
should  be  sufficient  to  suggest  that,  unfortunately,  one  side  of  the  com- 
parison, that  represented  by  the  non-delinquent  population,  will  be 
lacking  for  the  great  majority  of  points  on  which  we  wish  enlighten- 
ment. Such  information  as  is  given  in  the  United  States  Census  re- 
ports is  the  most  comprehensive  material  available,  but  this  is  presented 
under  such  general  headings  that  its  usefulness  for  our  purpose  is 
limited.  Other  less  extensive  sources  of  information  give  a  certain 
amount  of  scattering  data  regarding  special  groups  of  women,  but 
none  of  these  can  be  taken  as  adequately  representative  of  women  as  a 
whole.  The  fact  is,  therefore,  that  at  present  the  comparison  sug- 
gested as  of  prime  importance,  namely,  that  between  the  general 
female  population  and  our  special  group  of  offenders,  cannot  be  carried 
through  in  any  satisfactory  fashion. 

As  approximations  to  that  result,  two  makeshifts  are  possible.  The 
first  of  these  is  the  one  just  mentioned,  namely,  a  comparison  of  this 
group  with  such  general  data  as  are  available  on  the  whole  female  popu- 
lation through  the  census  reports.  For  all  such  information,  however, 
not  only  are  we  restricted  to  the  most  general  data,  but  we  must  refer 
back  to  the  13th  census  which  represents  facts  which  were  true  of  the 


PROBLEMS  AND  METHODS  OF  TREATMENT  7 

population  in  1910.  We  cannot  be  certain  that  relationships  held  the 
same  for  the  years  covered  by  our  study,  1915-7,  especially  in  the  light 
of  the  war  conditions  of  this  period.  The  second  possibiHty  is  a  com- 
parison with  data  on  separate  groups  of  women  for  such  information 
as  may  be  available.  Such  comparisons  may  be  suggestive,  though  not 
final,  and  we  shall  not  hesitate  to  make  use  of  these  sources  whenever 
possible. 

Even  in  the  face  of  these  limitations  on  the  satisfactory  rounding 
out  of  our  comparisons,  it  has  appeared  desirable  to  present,  in  con- 
siderable detail,  the  phase  of  the  comparison  which  we  are  able  to 
furnish  as  the  result  of  our  investigations,  in  order  that  this  may  be 
accessible  at  such  time  in  the  future  as  more  complete  data  concerning 
the  non-delinquent  female  population  may  have  been  secured. 

The  second  comparison  which  naturally  suggests  itself  is  almost 
as  much  out  of  the  question  in  any  complete  form  at  present  as  is  the 
preceding,  namely,  the  comparison  of  women  offenders  with  similar 
groups  of  men  offenders.  It  is  true  that  most  of  the  work  which 
has  been  done  on  the  subject  of  crime  and  criminals  has  been  the 
result  of  the  study  of  men  criminals.  Goring's  important  work  on 
the  English  convict  *  is  concerned  entirely  with  men.  Dr.  Glueck's 
report  on  a  year's  admissions  to  Sing  Sing  prison  ^  gives  comparative 
data  of  special  interest  to  us  since  it  is  concerned  with  men  convicted  in 
this  state.  Dr.  Heacox  has  put  at  our  disposal  certain  unpublished 
results  of  his  study  of  men  at  Auburn  prison  which  also  furnish  valu- 
able material  for  comparison.  These  and  other  studies  of  men  of- 
fenders will  be  made  use  of  for  purposes  of  comparison,  but  it  should 
be  noted  that  they  are  confined  almost  entirely  to  the  study  of  men 
convicted  of  relatively  serious  offenses  and  committed  to  state  prisons. 
We  lack  similar  extensive  studies  of  adult  men  convicted  of  minor 
offenses  and  committed  to  work-houses,  county  penitentiaries  and  re- 
formatories. It  will  be  apparent  from  our  account  of  the  character 
of  the  offenses  which  the  women  under  consideration  have  committed 
that  these  fall  in  the  latter  class  of  relatively  minor  offenses.  The 
group  of  women  that  is  in  any  way  comparable  with  the  type  of  men 
offenders  who  have  been  most  extensively  studied  is  so  small  as  seri- 
ously to  hamper  the  working  out  of  any  extensive  comparison.  We 
note,  for  example,  that  while  the  total  number  of  men  committed  to  the 

*  Goring,  Charles.  "The  English  Convict.  A  Statistical  Study."  T.  Fisher 
Unwin,  London,  W.C,  1913. 

^  Glueck,  Bernard.  "A  Study  of  608  Admissions  to  Sing  Sing  Prison." 
Mental  Hygiene,  Vol.  2,  No.  1,  Jan.,  1918. 


8        STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

state  prisons  of  New  York  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  July  1,  1917, 
is  1403"  the  total  number  of  women  received  in  Auburn  prison,  the 
only  prison  of  the  state  which  receives  women,  during  the  same  period 
of  time  is  27?  A  fuller  discussion  of  this  phase  of  the  comparison 
will  be  offered  in  detail  under  our  account  of  the  nature  of  offenses 
committed  by  women.  For  any  close  comparisons  between  our  group 
and  the  men  convicted  of  crime,  studied  in  the  investigations  mentioned 
above,  we  feel  it  necessary  to  restrict  ourselves  to  those  women  who 
have  been  convicted  of  felonies,  of  whom  we  have  126  cases.  These 
are  not  entirely  comparable  with  the  men  sentenced  to  state  prisons, 
since  they  include,  in  addition  to  Auburn  commitments,  cases  com- 
mitted for  felonies  to  the  State  Reformatory  at  Bedford  Hills,  the 
New  York  County  Penitentiary,  and  the  Magdalen  Home.  They  do 
represent,  however,  cases  all  of  whom  might  have  been  sentenced  to 
state  prisons,  so  that  comparison  seems  reasonably  justifiable.  The 
number  of  commitments  of  women  to  the  State  Prison  is  so  small 
that  it  would  be  necessary  either  to  spread  the  study  over  the  whole 
country  or  to  extend  it  over  a  long  period  of  time.  To  have  secured 
500  cases  of  women  given  State  Prison  terms  in  New  York  State  would 
have  required  an  investigation  covering  the  commitments  during  a 
period  of  twelve  years,  whereas  this  number  of  cases  can  be  secured  in 
less  than  six  months  from  the  men's  prisons  of  the  state. 

With  reference  to  this  comparison,  therefore,  of  women  delinquents 
as  a  whole  with  men  delinquents  as  a  whole,  we  are  in  practically  the 
same  position  as  for  the  first  comparison  suggested;  that  is,  we  must 
offer  data  on  one  side  of  the  comparison  without  being  able  to  secure 
the  complementary  information  on  the  group  to  be  compared.  Since 
we  feel  certain  that  studies  of  male  misdemeanants  and  of  male  felons 
not  committed  to  State  Prisons  will  be  completed  before  many  more 
years,  we  have  no  hesitation  in  offering  our  data  as  useful  for  this 
comparison  at  some  future  time. 

'  "Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  State  Prisons."  New  York,  1917,  p.  20, 
table  5;  p.  116,  statement  1;  p.  232,  table  8.  The  total  number  given  above  is 
obtained  by  combining  the  figures  given  in  the  tables  specified  as  the  number 
of  cases  received  in  each  prison  from  the  district  assigned  to  that  prison.  A 
combination  of  the  total  number  received  during  the  year  in  all  the  prisons  of 
the  state  would  be  misleading  since  a  given  individual  might  thus  appear  sev- 
eral times,  being  recorded,  for  example,  as  received  at  Sing  Sing  from  Sing 
Sing  district  and  received  at  Auburn  later  from  Sing  Sing  prison,  and  pos- 
sibly again  received  at  Clinton  or  at  Great  Meadow  prison  from  Auburn  prison. 

''Ibid.,  p.  198,  table  1  (number  received  exclusive  of  those  returned  for  vio- 
lation of  parole). 


PROBLEMS  AND  METHODS  OF  TREATMENT  9 

The  third  type  of  comparison  which  requires  consideration  is  more 
directly  possible  from  our  own  data.  We  refer  to  the  study  of  the 
inter-relations  observed  within  the  group  of  delinquent  women  them- 
selves. The  total  group  may  be  divided  into  numerous  subdivisions  i 
selected  now  on  one  basis  of  classification,  now  on  another,  in  accord-  j 
ance  with  the  special  interest  of  the  moment.  For  example,  there  is 
first  the  division  with  which  we  began ;  namely,  of  groups  in  terms  of 
the  institution  to  which  the  women  have  been  sentenced.  It  seems 
desirable  to  determine  what  general  principles  of  selection,  if  any,  have 
been  operative  to  determine  commitment  to  one  institution  rather  than 
to  another.  Cutting  across  this  classification  is  that  in  terms  of  nature 
of  offense  committed,  since  we  are  equally  concerned  to  know  whether 
individuals  committing  one  type  of  offense  are  distinguished  in  any 
important  ways  from  those  committing  other  offenses.  Similarly  we 
may  reclassify  our  whole  number  for  special  consideration  into  groups 
according  to  nationality  and  color,  or  according  to  criminal  record,  or 
sex  history,  or  record  of  juvenile  offenses.  These  and  numerous  other 
groupings  which  suggest  themselves  offer  fields  wherein  inquiries  re- 
garding the  characteristic  marks  of  the  special  group  as  distinguished 
from  the  whole  group  of  delinquent  women  are  pertinent. 

It  is  important  to  bear  in  mind,  with  reference  to  all  discussion  of 
such  inter-relationships,  that  we  offer  our  data  as  applying  only  to 
relationships  within  the  group  of  women  delinquents  under  considera- 
tion. We  make  no  claims  to  their  extension  to  other  groups,  as  for 
example  to  men  criminals  who  may  differ  in  many  respects  from 
women  criminals,  or  to  juvenile  delinquents,  who  constitute  another 
quite  distinct  problem. 

USE  OF  MASS  METHODS  OF  TREATMENT  RATHER  THAN  CASE  HISTORY 
METHODS    IN    PRESENT  STUDY 

The  methods  of  approach  to  these  problems  naturally  divide  them- 
selves into  methods  of  investigation  and  methods  of  analysis  of  results. 
These  are  described  in  detail  in  Chapters  III,  IV  and  V.  A  few  points 
of  general  significance  may,  however,  be  noted  here. 

First  of  these  is  the  fact  that  the  methods  of  investigation  have  con- 
sisted of  careful  individual  studies,  while  the  methods  of  analysis  have 
treated  the  results  as  mass  data  and  handled  these  statistically. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  present  study  the  main  object  in  the 
detailed  individual  studies  was  the  increased  accuracy  of  the  informs 


10      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

tion  secured. **  The  fact  that  our  numbers  are  not  large  made  us  feel 
the  necessily  of  making  our  data  as  reliable  as  possible.  The  more 
thoroughly  an  investigator  comes  to  know  a  given  woman,  the  more 
likely  is  she  to  acquire  the  main  facts  of  importance  concerning  her 
and  to  pass  judgment  satisfactorily  on  the  trustworthiness  of  the  facts. 
Moreover,  the  mere  knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  inmate  that  facts  are 
to  be  verified  tends  of  itself  to  reduce  the  amount  of  false  statement. 
And,  in  addition  to  these  aids  to  accuracy,  there  is  always  the  pos- 
sibility that  a  thorough  investigation  will  unearth  clues  which  will  lead 
to  clearing  up  the  case  and  giving  an  entirely  different  picture  of 
significant  factors  from  that  offered  by  the  inmate  herself. 

In  our  account  of  the  sociological  methods  (Chapter  IV)  the  fact 
is  emphasized  that  there  was  much  difference  in  the  completeness  of 
this  investigation  in  the  various  groups  studied :  that  it  was  most  satis- 
factory for  the  Bedford  group  and  least  so  for  the  Workhouse.  We 
feel,  however,  that  even  for  the  latter  group  our  data  are  considerably 
more  reliable  than  any  information  based  on  an  inmate's  statement 
alone. 

Having  accumulated  the  material  by  individual  methods  the  ques- 
tion may  arise  regarding  the  reasons  for  applying  mass  methods  of 
treatment  to  them.  These  methods  were  chosen  consciously  and  in 
spite  of  full  recognition  of  the  importance  of  careful  study  of  the 
individual  for  understanding  of  that  individual.  Wherever  practical 
direction  of  the  treatment  of  the  individual  case  has  been  an  issue 
we  have  acted  on  this  principle.  At  the  same  time  v^^e  are  not  in 
sympathy  with  the  attitude  of  distrust  toward  all  methods  approaching 
the  statistical,  as  we  find  this  manifested  by  many  modern  leaders  in 
the  field  of  criminology,  especially  those  of  the  medical  profession. 

In  the  first  place,  we  believe  that  some  background  of  knowledge 
regarding  many  individuals  is  essential  even  for  the  adequate  under- 
standing of  a  given  individual.  For  example,  if  we  leave  the  field  of 
criminology  for  the  moment  and  turn  to  the  province  of  medicine 
which  has  been  particularly  wary  of  mass  methods,  it  will  probably  be 
admitted  that  a  patient  suffering  with  a  given  combination  of  symptoms 
at  a  given  time  will  feel  more  confidence  in  a  physician  who  not  only 
studies  the  individual  case  before  him  "as  an  individual"  with  thor- 
oughness, but  who  brings  to  such  study  a  background  of  knowledge 

'It  should  be  remembered  that  there  was  another  entirely  different  reason 
for  prosecuting  the  individual  studies  with  thoroughness.  This  was  the  fact 
that,  in  the  case  of  the  Bedford  \vomen  especially,  this  information  was  relied 
upon  in  the  institution  as  a  basis  for  treatment  of  the  case. 


PROBLEMS  AND  METHODS  OF  TREATMENT  11 

of  some  cases  other  than  the  present  one.  Some  such  background  may 
be  acquired  through  the  physician's  own  experiences  and  the  anecdotal 
material  which  he  may  acquire  from  professional  friends.  Such  in- 
formation, not  organized  nor  tabulated  in  any  way,  may  contribute 
materially  to  his  skilful  handling  of  the  given  patient  at  the  given 
time.  However,  there  are  few  of  us  who  would  elect  to  trust  our- 
selves to  the  physician  with  only  that  background.  Some  contact  with 
the  generalized  experience  of  others  is  the  least  that  we  can  accept 
from  our  physician. 

The  method  of  case  histories  has  been  the  favorite  medical  device 
for  securing  this  background,  and  it  has  unquestionably  its  uses.  In 
our  opinion  it  has  also  its  dangers,  in  its  very  lack  of  objectivity.  It  is 
too  susceptible  to  the  whim  or  prejudice  of  the  person  who  selects  the 
cases  to  be  used  and  compiles  their  histories.  It  is  not  possible, 
through  case  histories,  to  prove  or  disprove  any  facts,  but  it  is  possi- 
ble to  convey  impressions  and  establish  convictions.  Whether  or  not 
these  are  trustworthy  depends  entirely  on  the  background,  the  insight 
and  the  intellectual  honesty  of  the  person  w^ho  presents  them.  It  would 
be  quite  possible  so  to  select  cases  that  they  would  convey,  more  or  less 
convincingly,  the  impression  that  women  convicted  of  larceny  are  blue- 
eyed.  It  would  be  only  necessary  that  we  cite  only  blue-eyed  women, 
and  that  we  always  mention  this  characteristic  and  that  we  happen  to 
mention  other  characteristics  with  less  regularity.  Lombroso's  work 
exemplifies  this  treatment,  carried  almost  to  the  degree  of  absurdity 
suggested  above,  in  the  attempt  to  establish  the  physical  stigmata  of 
the  criminal. 

It  has  seemed  to  us  that  the  dangers  involved  in  mere  individual 

treatment,  or  mere  series  of  case  studies,  were  so  great  that  the  more 

.  .  .        ' 

organized  mass  presentation  must  precede  any  special  studies  of  indi-l 

viduals.  Without  the  background  of  such  a  study  there  is  the  risk 
of  making  much  of  facts  which  are  in  no  sense  unusual  and  at  the  same 
time  disregarding  facts  of  importance  which  genuinely  distinguish  this 
individual  from  his  fellows. 

We  would  not  urge  that  it  is  possible  to  say  which  are  the  more  im- 
portant,— the  common,  characteristic  facts  or  the  unusual  distinguish- 
ing traits.  The  essential  thing  is  that  the  correct  poin'  of  view  be 
associated  with  each.  The  traits  which  occur  infrequently  in  a  delin- 
quent group  are  especially  important  to  note  as  a  basis  for  differentiat- 
ing the  treatment  of  the  individual  or  the  small  group  of  individuals  in 
whom  this  trait  occurs  from  the  whole  group. 


/ 


12      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

On  the  otlier  hand  it  is  important  for  the  treatment  of  delinquent 
groups  as  a  whole  both  that  common  characteristics  be  noted  and  that 
they  be  recognized  as  common.  As  we  have  already  stated,  methods 
of  treatment  are  inevitably  affected  by  the  preconceptions  of  the  gov- 
erning bodies  concerning  the  characteristics  of  the  group  with  which 
they  deal.  Obviously  the  plan  of  organization  of  the  penal  system 
will  be  influenced  by  the  existence  of  any  of  the  following  assump- 
tions :  that  all  criminals  are  congenitally  degenerate ;  that  they  are  pre- 
dominantly feeble-minded ;  that  they  are  abnormally  clever ;  that  they 
are  victims  of  early  environmental  conditions ;  that  they  are  produced 
by  economic  necessity ;  that  they  are  predominantly  uneducated,  and 
that  this  lack  of  education  has  been  a  factor  in  their  criminal  career; 
that  they  have  more  than  the  average  education  for  their  social  or  racial 
group  and  that  this  fact  has  affected  them  adversely.  These,  and 
many  other  generalizations  have  figured  in  the  minds  of  persons  dealing 
with  delinquents  and  have  contributed  toward  the  penal  systems  which 
have  been  inaugurated.  Many  of  them  are  open  to  scientific  study, 
as  Goring  has  so  conclusively  demonstrated  with  reference  to  Lom- 
broso's  theories  of  the  physical  degeneracy  of  criminals.  Presumably 
the  problem  of  the  delinquent  will  not  prove  so  simple  as  to  be  sum- 
marized in  any  of  the  above  general  formulae,  but,  if  we  can  avoid 
being  misled  into  assuming  that  a  condition  which  exists  commonly 
must  be  a  cause,  the  discovery  that  a  state  of  affairs  is  to  be  expected 
with  frequency  in  any  delinquent  group  should  have  at  least  some  bear- 
/  ing  on  their  treatment. 

The  great  advantage  of  the  case  history  method  is  the  fact  that  it 
presents  a  picture  of  the  whole  personality,  which  the  present  type  of 
study  fails  to  show.  In  our  opinion  both  types  of  study  should  be 
used  since  each  can  throw  light  on  the  other.  We  have  chosen  the 
mass  method  as  particularly  applicable  to  our  data  and  as  meeting,  in 
our  opinion,  a  definite  need  in  the  study  of  criminology. 


CHAPTER  II 
GENERAL  ACCOUNT  OF  DELINQUENT  GROUPS  STUDIED 

THE  total  group  under  consideration  is  made  up  of  women  con- 
victed of  offenses  against  the  law  in  the  courts  of  New  York 
State.  We  shall  refer  to  this  constantly  as  an  adult  group,  since  all 
cases  have  a  legal  age  ^  of  sixteen  years  or  over.  There  is  no  upper  age 
limit  for  the  individuals  included  although  there  is  a  tendency  toward 
such  an  upper  limit  for  certain  of  the  groups. 

Though  any  offense  against  the  law  is  technically  a  crime,  and  any 
person  committing  a  crime  may  be  called  a  criminal,  we  have  preferred 
to  refer  to  these  women  as  "delinquents,"  or,  using  a  most  general 
term,  as  "offenders."  The  term  "criminal"  connotes  to  most  persons 
an  individual  guilty  of  one  of  the  more  serious  offenses  and  is  approxi- 
mately synonymous  with  the  term  "felon."  Since  the  major  part  of 
the  group  of  women  whom  we  are  studying  is  not  of  this  type,  we  have 
preferred  to  avoid  the  term  "criminal."  It  seems  a  far  cry  to  desig- 
nate as  "criminal"  the  girl  of  sixteen  or  seventeen  who  may  be  con- 
victed of  "associating  with  vicious  and  dissolute  persons  and  being  in 
danger  of  becoming  morally  depraved,"  or  the  woman  who  is  con- 
victed, even  for  the  twentieth  time,  of  intoxication,  or,  in  fact,  even  the 
common  prostitute  whose  offense  against  the  law  is  made  possible  only 
by  the  participation  of  men,  who  are  not  even  considered  accomplices 
in  a  criminal  act  in  the  eyes  of  the  law.  The  very  fact  that  there  is 
such  extreme  lack  of  uniformity  between  this  and  other  countries, 
and  even  between  different  sections  of  this  country,  as  to  whether  these 
acts  constitute  even  legal  offenses,  furnishes  another  reason  for  hesi- 
tating to  brand  those  committing  them  by  the  term  "criminal." 

GENERAL  MAKE-UP  OF  GROUPS,  WITH  A  VIEW  TO  SECURING  REPRESENTA- 
TIVES OF  ALL  TYPES 

In  planning  the  make-up  of  the  total  number  to  be  studied  our  main 

desire  was  to  secure,  as  our  composite  group,  one  which  should  con- 

*We  distinguish  between  "legal"  age  and  "actual"  age,  the  former  being 
the  age  which  the  court  accepts  at  the  time  of  conviction.  There  are  a  few 
cases,  in  our  total  number,  where  the  actual  age  was  under  sixteen. 

13 


14      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

tain  representatives  of  all  types  and  degrees  of  delinquency  ordinarily 
found  among  women  offenders.  It  seemed  hopeless  to  plan  to  obtain 
these  in  the  actual  proportions  in  which  they  occur,  but  we  hoped,  by 
proper  weighting  of  the  groups,  to  be  able  to  offer  eventually  a  satis- 
t  factory  picture  of  the  sum  total  of  the  women  offenders  of  the  state. 
We  realized  that  any  particular  institutional  group  could  not  be  con- 
sidered rejjresentative,  since  numerous  factors,  many  of  which  would 
'be  impossible  of  evaluation,  enter  into  the  selection  of  cases  to  be  sent 
to  any  given  institution.  This  was,  in  fact,  the  main  consideration 
which  led  us  to  the  extension  of  our  study  beyond  the  scope  of  the 
Reformatory  at  Bedford  Hills,  where  the  work  was  initiated. 

The  first  problem  was  to  determine  how  we  could  best  secure  the 
representative  total  desired.  The  two  possibilities  which  suggested 
themselves  were  the  following:  (1)  to  secure  the  women  at  the  time  of 
conviction  as  they  came  through  the  various  courts  of  the  state ;  or 
(2)  to  take  them  after  commitmeait  as  they  were  to  be  found  in  the 
various  institutions.  The  former  method,  had  it  been  feasible,  would 
have  had  many  advantages  over  the  latter,  since  it  would  have  made 
possible  the  elimination  of  the  factors  of  selection  represented  by  the 
sentence  to  one  institution  or  another.  However,  it  appeared  utterly 
impracticable  to  approach  our  problem  from  the  avenue  of  the  court, 
under  present  conditions.  If  a  clearing  house  or  a  series  of  clearing 
houses  were  in  existence,  this  method  of  approach  would  be  possible, 
but  in  the  absence  of  some  such  plan,  whereby  the  women  could  be 
held,  subject  to  study,  for  a  short  time  at  least,  conditions  are  too 
variable  and  not  adapted  to  the  successful  carrying  out  of  any  plan 
of  investigation.  Women  would  be  shifted  from  one  place  to  another 
while  their  investigation  was  in  progress,  which  would  mean  endless 
waste  of  time  in  the  mere  attempt  to  keep  track  of  their  location. 
Moreover,  the  majority  of  city  and  county  jails  offer  no  places  which 
would  be  even  reasonably  satisfactory  for  interviews  and  mental  ex- 
aminations. The  approach  by  way  of  the  institutions  to  which  the 
cases  had  been  committed  seemed  therefore  the  only  practicable 
method.    This  line  of  approach  we  have  accordingly  followed. 

Within  the  several  institutions  we  have  made  it  our  practice  to  take 
consecutive  commitments,  in  order  that  the  individuals  used  might  be 
representative  of  the  group,  with  no  further  selection  than  that  which 
was  made  by  the  court  when  the  commitment  was  determined  upon. 
In  our  account  of  the  various  groups  we  shall  indicate  to  what  extent 
we  have  been  able  to  follow  this  plan  absolutely,  and  where  we  have 


ACCOUNT  OF  DELINQUENT  GROUPS  STUDIED        15 

had  to  make  adjustments  to  meet  special  conditions.  We  feel  justified 
in  saying  that  tendencies  toward  special  selection  have  been  reduced 
to  a  minimum  within  our  groups.  In  one  case  only,  that  of  the  New 
York  City  Workhouse,  have  these  tendencies  proved  very  serious.  In 
that  case,  as  we  shall  see,  we  have  found  it  necessary  to  eliminate  a 
part  of  the  very  large  group  under  consideration  and  to  treat  our  cases 
as  typical  of  a  specially  defined  portion  of  the  Workhouse  rather  than 
of  the  whole. 

Since  it  was  not  feasible  to  make  a  survey  of  all  the  institutions  of 
the  state  it  became  necessary  to  make  a  selection  from  among  the  avail- 
able institutions  and  delinquent  groups.  In  the  effort  to  include  all 
types  and  degrees  of  offenders  the  following  groups  were  chosen:  (1) 
The  New  York  State  Reformatory  for  Women  at  Bedford  Hills ;  (2) 
The  State  Prison  for  Women  at  Auburn;  (3)  The  New  York  Mag- 
dalen Home  (Inwood  House)  ;  (4)  The  New  York  County  Peni- 
tentiary;  (5)  The  New  York  City  Workhouse;  (6)  A  group  of  women 
placed  on  probation  through  the  Night  Court  for  women  for  the  bor- 
oughs of  Manhattan  and  the  Bronx  (Ninth  District  Court).  A  brief 
description  of  the  general  characteristics  of  these  groups  may  serve  to 
make  clear  the  reasons  for  their  selection.  Detailed  analysis  of  the 
personnel  of  the  various  institutions  will  constitute  one  of  the  problems 
to  be  discussed  later  in  the  text. 

DESCRIPTIVE    ACCOUNT    OF    GROUPS 

(a)   The  New  York  State  Reformatory  for  Women,  Bedford  Hills, 

N.  Y. 

The  State  Reformatory  for  women  at  Bedford  Hills  receives 
women  from  the  eastern  part  of  the  state. ^  (The  Western  House  of 
Refuge  at  Albion  is  the  reformatory  for  the  rest  of  the  state  and  re- 
ceives women  under  exactly  the  same  conditions  as  does  the  reforma- 
tory at  Bedford  Hills.  The  institution  at  Bedford  Hills  was  chosen 
as  representative  of  both  reformatories  of  the  state  and  no  study  was 
made  of  the  institution  at  Albion. 

These  institutions  receive  women  convicted  of  a  wide  range  of  of- 
fenses, including  both  felonies  and  misdemeanors.     Of  the  felonies, 

^  Commitments  to  the  New  York  State  Reformatory  for  Women  at  Bedford 
Hills  are  from  the  firstj  second,  third  and  ninth  judicial  districts.  This  in- 
cludes 19  counties :  the  five  counties  within  Greater  New  York,  the  counties  on 
Long  Island,  and  the  counties  bordering  the  Hudson  River  as  far  north  as 
Rensselaer  County. 


16      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

murder  in  the  first  or  the  second  degree  is  the  only  offense  for  which 
one  cannot  be  committed,  except  that  a  woman  cannot  be  sentenced  to 
the  reformatory  for  a  felony  after  having  had  any  previous  conviction 
for  a  felony.  Of  the  misdemeanors  and  other  minor  offenses  there 
are  very  few  for  which  one  cannot  be  committed  to  a  reformatory,  ex- 
cept in  case  of  offenses  for  which  no  institutional  commitment  is  pro- 
vided.    Accordingly  the  Bedford  group  has  the  possibility  of  includ- 

i  ing  almost  the  whole  range  of  offenses  for  which  women  are  impris- 
oned. All  cases  committed  to  these  reformatories  are  given  an  inde- 
terminate sentence  not  to  exceed  three  years,  power  being  vested  in 
the  Board  of  Managers  to  parole  or  discharge  at  any  time  before  the 
expiration  of  the  three  years.  No  cases  are  received  under  sixteen 
years  of  age,  and  it  was  formerly  true  that  none  were  received  over 
thirty.  There  is  at  present  legal  provision  for  the  commitment  to  the 
reformatory  of  individuals  over  thirty,  convicted  of  specified  offenses 
in  certain  parts  of  the  district  covered.  There  is,  however,  a  tendency 
to  think  of  thirty  as  an  upper  age  limit  for  the  reformatory  groups. 

From  many  points  of  view  our  study  of  the  Bedford  women  is  more 
satisfactory  and  complete  than  is  our  study  of  any  of  the  other  groups. 
For  the  understanding  of  this  group  we  had  more  background  than 
for  any  of  the  others  included  because  of  the  fact  that  the  work  of 
the  Laboratory  had  been  centered  here  from  its  beginning.  In  fact 
this  type  of  study  had  been  inaugurated  by  Dr.  Davis  in  her  "Study 
of  Prostitutes  at  Bedford"  published  in  1913.^  The  investigation 
made  by  Dr.  Weidensall,  reported  in  "The  Alentality  of  the  Criminal 
\\'oman,"  *  dealt  also  wnth  this  group.  In  addition  to  this  general  back- 
ground of  understanding  there  was  the  fact  that  all  the  conditions 
made  possible  here  a  particularly  thorough  and  reliable  investigation. 
The  physical  conditions  surrounding  the  work,  which  are  important 
for  their  influence  on  the  success  of  both  interviewing  and  examining, 
are  much  better  than  in  any  of  the  other  institutions.  Moreover,  the 
work  was  so  well  established  that  it  was  accepted  as  a  regular  part  of 
the  routine  of  admission  to  the  institution.  In  addition  to  these 
factors,  there  is  the  fact  that  the  organization  of  the  Laboratory  made 

^possible  a  greater  thoroughness  of  investigation  here  than  for  any  of 
the  other  institutions.     For  all  these  reasons  we  shall  tend  to  consider 

'  Knceland,  George  J.  "Commercialized  Prostitution  in  New  York  City." 
Chapter  VIII  by  Katharine  Bement  Davis.  "A  Study  of  Prostitutes  Committed 
to  the  State  Reformatory  for  Women  at  Bedford  Hills." 

*  Weidensall,  Jean.     "The  Mentality  of   the   Criminal  Woman,"    1916. 


ACCOUNT  OF  DELINQUENT  GROUPS  STUDIED       17 

the  Bedford  group  as  of  rather  central  interest,  and  shall  use  it  fre- 
quently as  a  point  of  reference  for  other  groups. 

The  Bedford  commitments  under  consideration  for  the  main  part 
of  the  present  inquiry  consist  of  102  consecutive  cases  committed  be- 
tween September  1,  1916,  and  August  9,  1917.  In  addition  to  these, 
whom  we  have  designated  the  "Contemporary  Group,"  we  have  used 
for  much  of  the  material  on  the  psychological  tests  other  cases  ex- 
amined prior  to  the  study  of  this  group.  These  have  been  used  for 
the  greater  certainty  which  they  offered  that  the  Bedford  group  is 
actually  a  fair  sample  of  commitments  to  Bedford  in  general.  The  de- 
tails as  to  numbers  used  will  be  given  at  a  later  point.  We  have  not 
used  the  earlier  groups  on  the  social  data,  since  the  methods  used  for 
securing  such  data  were  not  entirely  the  same  during  the  early  part 
of  the  Laboratory  work  and  the  forms  for  recording  data  were  very 
different.  This  latter  difference  made  the  work  of  including  the  early 
Bedford  groups  so  great  as  to  be  prohibitive  within  the  time  limits  of 
the  present  investigation. 

(b)  The  State  Prison  for  Women,  Auburn,  N.  Y. 

The  state  prison  for  women  at  Auburn  represents  for  women  of- 
fenders of  this  state  the  same  type  of  institution  as  is  furnished  in 
Sing  Sing,  Auburn,  Clinton,  and  Great  Meadow  prisons  for  men  felons. 
We  have  already  commented  on  the  great  discrepancy  between  the 
number  of  men  and  the  number  of  women  committed  to  institutions 
of  this  type.  Any  woman  convicted  of  a  felony  may  be  sentenced  to 
Auburn  prison.  No  cases  other  than  felonies  are  legally  committable 
there.  It  is  to  be  expected  that  in  the  case  of  offenses  for  which  there 
is  a  range  of  choice  regarding  the  institution  to  which  they  shall  be 
sent,  commitment  to  state  prison  will  be  used  where  the  offense  is 
especially  grave  or  where  the  offender  appears  to  be  a  particularly  dan- 
gerous member  of  the  community.  Sentence  to  state  prison  is  com- 
monly thought  of  as — by  its  very  nature — the  most  severe  sentence 
which  can  be  given,  although  it  is  possible  for  one  to  receive  a  shorter 
term  in  state  prison  than  that  made  possible  by  the  indeterminate  re- 
formatory sentence  with  its  three-year  maximum.  No  person  under 
sixteen  years  of  age  can  be  committed  to  state  prison,  but  there  is  no 
upper  age  limit. 

We  have  already  commented  on  the  slow  rate  of  admission  of 
women  to  Auburn  prison.  For  this  reason  it  was  necessary  to  begin 
our  study  with  cases  whose  admission  antedated  by  a  considerable 


18      STUDY  OF  WOMKN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

period  of  time  the  actual  beginning  of  our  investigation.  In  doing  this 
we  lost  entirely  from  our  series  eight  cases,  five  of  whom  had  served 
their  time  and  left  the  institution  before  we  began  our  work,  one  of 
whom  had  died,  and  two  of  whom  refused  to  talk  about  their  cases  or 
take  any  examinations.^  The  first  case  of  our  regular  Auburn  series 
was  committed  February  4,  1915,  and  the  last  case,  June  27,  1917, 
making  the  range  of  time  covered  by  the  commitments  of  this  group 
more  than  two  years.  The  total  number  of  cases  received  during  this 
time  was  88.  These  numbers  were  supplemented,  for  certain  of  the 
tests  where  we  were  particularly  desirous  to  increase  our  numbers,  by 
additional  cases  preceding  and  following  this  regular  group. 

There  were  many  difficulties  inherent  in  carrying  on  such  an  inves- 
tigation with  this  group.  In  fact  without  the  cordial  cooperation  which 
we  received  from  the  authorities  of  the  prison  it  would  have  been  en- 
tirely impracticable  to  attempt  this  study.**  Those  women  especially 
whose  commitments  dated  back  one  or  two  years  before  the  beginning 
of  our  study,  were  naturally  inclined  to  resent  going  over  the  facts 
of  their  cases  again.  Moreover,  on  general  principles  they  were  in- 
clined to  object  to  the  inauguration  of  any  such  a  careful  study  of  them 
as  individuals.  It  required  much  tact  and  ingenuity  to  meet  this  atti- 
tude of  mind.  We  were  fortunate  in  finding  an  opportunity  to  be  of 
some  real  value  to  certain  of  the  women  in  the  course  of  our  investiga- 
tions, by  clearing  up  misunderstandings  with  members  of  their  family 
and  establishing  more  friendly  relations  between  them.  This  helped 
toward  the  creation  of  a  more  friendly  feeling  toward  our  work. 

(c)  The  Neiv  York  Magdalen  Home'' 

The  New  York  Magdalen  Home  is  one  of  several  institutions 
under  private  management  which  receive  women  committed  through 
the  courts.     The  main  other  institutions  of  the  state  coming  under  this 

^The  commitment  data  were  available  on  these  cases  and  they  are  accord- 
ingly included  in  the  tables  which  give  information  concerning  the  offenses  for 
which  committed. 

"We  cannot  express  too  warmly  our  appreciation  of  the  cooperation  which 
we  received.  Dr.  Frank  L.  Heacox,  physician  of  the  Prison,  aided  us  at  every 
turn.  Not  onh  did  he  permit  us  the  use  of  his  offices  in  the  women's  prison 
for  our  work,  but  his  friendly  attitude  of  cooperation  helped  much  to  over- 
come the  antagonism  which  the  inmates  felt  toward  any  strange  innovation. 
He  also  permitted  us  the  use  of  his  records.  P'or  all  the  medical  data  which 
we  offer  on  this  group  of  women  we  are  directly  indebted  to  Dr.  Heacox.  To 
Mrs.  Margaret  E.  Daly,  matron  of  the  women's  prison,  Miss  Curtis,  first  as- 
sistant, and  Mrs.  Stone,  head  of  the  school,  we  are  also  indebted  for  con- 
stant cooperation  and  assistance. 

'  This  institution  is  now  known  as  Inwood  House. 


ACCOUNT  OF  DELINQUENT  GROUPS  STUDIED       19 

classification  are  the  following:  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd 
(New  York  City),  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd  in  the  City  of 
Brootclyn,  the  House  of  Mercy  (New  York  City),  the  Wayside  Home 
of  the  City  of  Brooklyn  (now  at  Valley  Stream,  Long  Island) ,  the  Asy- 
lum of  Our  Lady  of  Refuge  (Buffalo),  the  Mount  Magdalen  School 
of  Industry  and  Refomiatory  of  the  Good  Shepherd  (Troy),  St. 
Anne's  School  of  Industry  and  Reformatory  of  the  Good  Shepherd 
(Albany),  the  Shelter  for  Unprotected  Girls  (Syracuse). 

Since  it  was  obviously  not  feasible  to  obtain  representatives  from 
all  of  the  above  institutions,  we  hoped  to  secure  a  fairly  adequate 
representation  through  one  group  of  100  cases,  including  50  cases  from 
the  New  York  Magdalen  Home  and  50  cases  from  the  New  York 
House  of  the  Good  Shepherd.  The  latter  institution,  however,  refused 
our  request  for  permission  to  undertake  the  study,  stating  that  it 
was  contrary  to  their  method  of  government  "to  subject  our  inmates 
to  scrutiny  relative  to  their  past."  Accordingly  it  was  decided  to  f 
accept  the  group  from  the  Magdalen  Home  as  typical  of  commit- 
ments to  the  private  institutions.  Observation  of  the  women  as  they 
pass  through  the  courts  has  convinced  us  that  this  is  not  entirely  true, 
and  that  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd,  at  least,  has  probably 
a  somewhat  distinctive  group.  Specifically  it  appears  to  receive  more 
cases  of  older  women,  and  of  women  convicted  of  offenses  of  the  in- 
toxication type,  than  does  the  Magdalen  Home.  We  regret  that  it 
was  impossible  to  include  these  in  our  study.  The  fact  remains,  how- 
ever, that  it  would  be  difficult  to  designate  with  certainty  any  one  or 
two  of  these  institutions  as  characteristic  of  the  group,  since,  by  their 
very  nature,  there  is  much  scope  for  individuality  in  their  organiza- 
tion. Accordingly,  while  we  hi  ve  chosen  the  Magdalen  Home  as  the[\ 
representative  of  this  group  of  institutions,  we  do  not  claim  that  its  )  ' 
cases  are  necessarily  characteristic  of  commitments  to  private  institu-  [ 
tions  as  a  whole. 

The  Magdalen  Home  receives  women  between  16  and  35  years  of 
age  from  New  York  City  and  from  a  few  of  the  neighboring  counties. 
The  range  of  misdemeanors  for  which  one  may  be  committed  is  very 
similar  to  that  for  the  State  Reformatories.  The  law  does  not  provide 
for  conviction  to  this  institution  for  felonies,  though  occasional  cases 
so  convicted  have  been  sent  here,  when  the  individual  seemed  espe- 
cially likely  to  profit  by  the  lighter  sentence.  In  such  cases  the  procedure 
has  amounted  practically  to  suspension  of  sentence  by  the  judge  under 
the  condition  that  the  woman  voluntarily  commit  herself  to  the  in- 


20      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NI<:W  YORK 

stitution.  One  important  characteristic  of  the  private  institutions  is 
their  privilege  of  returning  to  the  court,  for  recommitment  elsewhere, 
cases  who  prove  to  be  undesirable  members  of  their  community.  This 
introduces  a  tendency  toward  selection  which,  although  exercised  after 
commitment  in  particular  cases,  may  well  react  upon  the  judges,  lead- 
ing them  to  refrain  from  committing  cases  who  are  likely  to  be  misfits 
in  these  institutions. 

Cases  are  committed  for  three  different  kinds  of  terms:  (1)  for 
definite  periods  not  exceeding  one  year;  (2)  for  the  period  of  their 
minority;  (3)  for  an  indeterminate  period  not  to  exceed  three  years, 
power  of  discharge  at  any  time  prior  to  this  being  vested  in  the  Board 
of  Managers.  The  last-mentioned  type  of  commitment  is  the  most 
frequent,  but  as  a  rule  women  are  discharged  or  paroled  after  a  shorter 
period  of  time  than  is  commonly  required  at  the  Reformatory  at  Bed- 
ford Hills.  This  fact  operates  in  the  same  direction  as  the  principle 
just  rrtentioned:  vis.,  toward  the  selection  of  more  promising  and  less 
confirmed  offenders,  in  so  far  as  it  affects  the  judges  making  the  com- 
mitments. 

We  include  in  our  study  76  consecutive  cases  received  at  the  Mag- 
dalen Home  between  September  29,  1916,  and  June  15,  1917.  It  was 
not  necessary  to  omit  completely  any  case  from  this  series,  though  sev- 
eral cases  were  omitted  from  a  part  of  the  study.  These  will  be  dis- 
cussed later. ^ 

{d)    The  Nezv  York   County  Penitentiary 

The  New  York  County  Penitentiary  is  one  of  the  five  penitentiaries  ° 
of  the  state  which  receive  women.  Commitments  are  made  for  speci- 
fied offenses  through  City  Magistrates  Court  and  for  felonies  and  mis- 
demeanors through  courts  of  Special  Sessions,  General  Sessions,  Su- 
preme Court  or  County  Court.  At  present  as  a  result  of  the  parole 
law,  all  commitments  from  New  York  County  are  given  an  indeter- 
minate sentence  not  to  exceed  three  years,  although  other  neighboring 
counties  may  commit  women  for  definite  terms.  There  is  no  age  limit 
other  than  the  lower  limit  of  sixteen  years. 

*  We  are  greatly  indebted  to  the  management  of  the  Magdalen  Home  for  the 
cordiaHty  with  which  they  granted  us  permission  to  carry  out  this  investiga- 
tion. We  are  especially  grateful  to  Mrs.  ]Mary  E.  Paddon,  Executive  Secretary, 
and  to  Miss  Janet  Macchonachie,  Superintendent,  for  their  assistance  and  co- 
operation. 

*  Since  the  completion  of  our  study  the  Westchester  County  Penitentiary 
has  been  opened,  but  this   receives  only  commitments  of  men  at  present. 


ACCOUNT  OF  DELINQUENT  GROUPS  STUDIED       21 

This  institution  is  characterized  by  an  inability  to  offer  anything  in 
the  way  of  constructive  training  during  the  period  of  imprisonment. 
Formerly  there  was  no  provision  for  employment  other  than  the  ordi- 
nary work  of  the  place.  That  need  was  met  at  the  time  of  this  study 
by  a  sewing  room  which  accommodates  about  thirty  women  at  a  time. 
Beyond  this  there  was  no  organized  training  or  occupation.  We  might 
expect  therefore  that  there  would  be  a  tendency  to  commit  to  the  Peni- 
tentiary unpromising  cases  who  could  profit  little  by  the  opportunities 
offered  in  an  institution  of  the  Reformatory  type,  or  older  cases  whose 
habits  and  characters  were  so  "set"  that  there  was  little  prospect  of 
altering  this.  This  tendency  is  even  more  to  be  expected  here  than  in 
the  case  of  the  Workhouse,  since  there  are  no  short  term  sentences  to 
take  care  of  the  more  trivial  offenders. 

Though  our  investigation  was  not  started  until  August,  1916,  it  was 
made  retroactive  beginning  with  the  first  case  committed  under  the 
Parole  Law.  No  definite  sentence  cases  were  included.  Our  study 
covered  a  total  of  110  cases  committed  consecutively  between  January 
12,  1916,  and  May  14,  1917.  Four  cases  were  lost  from  this  total  be- 
cause they  had  already  been  paroled  at  the  time  that  we  began  our 
study.  The  commitment  data  concerning  the  present  offenses  of  these 
four  cases,  being  available  and  trustworthy,  were  used,  however. 

(e)  The  New  York  City  Workhouse 

The  New  York  City  Workhouse  receives  only  misdemeanants,  but 
can  receive  almost  all  varieties  of  these.  The  terms  for  which  they 
may  be  committed  vary  from  definite  sentences  of  from  one  day  to  six 
months  duration  to  the  indeterminate  sentence,  for  which  the  maximum 
is  two  years.  By  observation  we  are  convinced  that  the  Workhouse 
receives  individuals  of  a  wide  variety  of  types.  As  is  to  be  expected 
from  the  fact  that  it  is  primarily  simply  a  place  for  holding  persons  in 
confinement  to  serve  their  time,  and  that  opportunities  for  constructive 
individual  readjustment  along  educational,  vocational  and  medical  lines 
are  conspicuously  lacking,  it  is  preeminently  the  place  for  "old  round- 
ers" of  all  sorts,  for  cases  who  have  been  given  opportunities  and  have 
failed  and  whose  prognosis  is  considered  most  unfavorable.  Under 
the  Parole  Law  it  is  made  imperative  that  persons  having  as  many  as 
two  previous  convictions  within  two  years  or  three  at  any  time  shall 
be  sentenced  for  the  indeterminate  term,  if  sentenced  to  the  Workhouse 
at  ajl.  This  law  of  itself  tends  to  divert  the  stream  of  old  offenders  ' 
among  the  misdemeanants  to  the  Workhouse. 


22      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

But  there  is  an  entirely  different  principle  operative  also  in  deter- 
mining Workhouse  commitments,  since  the  Workhouse  offers  a  short 
sentence  of  a  few  days  or  weeks  which  is,  from  point  of  view  of  pun- 
ishment, the  most  lenient  penalty,  except  probation,  suspended  sentence 
or  fines,  that  can  be  offered  to  a  trivial  offender. ^*^  Accordingly  a 
short  Workhouse  term  is  very  frequently  given  a  first  offender  with 
the  idea  that  her  offense  is  not  serious  enough  to  justify  a  longer  sen- 
tence. This  leads  to  the  inclusion  within  the  total  Workhouse  commit- 
tments of  at  least  two  quite  disparate  groups:  z'ic.  (1)  the  old  offenders 
^ho  are  given  for  the  most  part  terms  of  more  than  ten  days,  and  (2) 
fairly  new  offenders  who  are  frequently  given  the  shortest  sentences 
possible  for  their  offenses. 

■,  There  is,  however,  still  another  element  in  the  Workhouse  to  com- 
( plicate  the  situation,  vis.:  the  group  of  old  intoxication  cases.  The 
majority  of  cases  convicted  of  intoxication  in  the  New  York  City 
Courts  are  given  one  of  the  following  three  penalties:  (1)  they  may 
be  fined  not  more  than  $10  with  the  alternative  of  serving  time,  a  day 
for  a  dollar,  in  the  city  prison;  (2)  they  may  be  given  suspended  sen- 
tenced^ especially  used  with  first  offenders,  and  (3)  they  may  be  sen- 
tenced to  the  Workhouse  for  periods  of  one  day  to  six  months.  Of  the 
above  mentioned  three  possibilities  the  Workhouse  term  is  given  least 
frequently  to  first  offenders,  being  used  for  such  cases  as  a  rule  only 
when  it  is  evident  that  they  cannot  take  care  of  themselves,  and  that 
they  have  no  one  else  to  take  care  of  them  if  turned  loose. 

Of  the  first  two  groups — those  fined  and  those  given  suspended 

sentence — we  have  no  direct  knowledge.     With  the  intoxication  group 

jcommitted  to  the  Workhouse  we  had  some  experience,  enough  to  con- 

/vince  us  that  they  were  in  many  respects  different  from  the  rest  of 

the  Workhouse  population.     Most  notably  did  they  differ  in  degree 

\of  recidivism.     All  the  longest  records  of  previous  convictions  were 

[found  among  this  group  and  the  mean  number  of  previous  convictions 

was  larger  than  for  any  other  group.     In  addition  to  this  it  is  an  older 

group  than  the  Workhouse  group  as  a  whole,  the  range  of  nationalities 

included  is  very  different  and  the  mentality  as  measured  at  the  present 

time  at  least,  is  lower  than  that  of  the  rest  of  the  group. 

"  By  many  of  the  women  themselves  a  short  workhouse  sentence  appears 
definitely  preferable  to  even  a  chance  on  probation.  The  custom  of  imposing 
fines  is  now  discontinued  for  all  offenses  involving  prostitution,  though  they 
are  still  imposed  for  intoxication  and  disorderly  conduct. 

"  A  small  number  are  given  probation,  but  this  is  infrequent.  Suspended 
sentence  is  more  commonly  used   for  intoxication   cases. 


ACCOUNT  OF  DELINQUENT  GROUPS  STUDIED       23 

The  Workhouse  then  may  be  thought  of  as  made  up  of  at  least 
three  quite  distinct  portions:  (1)  General  misdemeanants,  exclusive  of 
cases  of  intoxication,  who  give  the  impression  of  being  hardened  and 
unpromising  or  who  have  failed  on  previous  opportunities;  (2)  new 
and  relatively  hopeful  cases  who  are  let  off  with  a  few  days  at  the 
Workhouse,  and  (3)  the  intoxication  cases  who  are  given  Workhouse 
terms.  Of  these  three  groups  we  confined  our  study  almost  entirely  to 
the  first. 

The  exclusion  of  the  other  two  groups  was  brought  about  by  two 
quite  distinct  conditions.  The  second  group,  made  up  of  the  new  and 
more  hopeful  offenders,  had  been  given  for  the  most  part  terms  of  ten 
days  or  less.  The  present  policy  of  the  Department  of  Correction  is 
not  to  transfer  such  cases  to  the  Workhouse  on  Blackwell's  Island  at 
all  but  to  allow  them  to  serve  their  terms  in  the  various  city  prisons. 
The  physical  impracticability  of  their  locations  together  with  the  tem- 
poral difficulties  introduced  by  the  shortness  of  their  terms  and  the  con- 
sequent difficulty  in  completing  their  study  before  they  went  out  made 
it  out  of  the  question  to  include  them  in  our  investigation. 

*  The  intoxication  group  introduced  a  different  complication.^ 
Though  all  cases  committed  for  a  term  longer  than  ten  days  were  actu 
ally  in  the  Workhouse  they  made,  of  all  our  groups,  the  most  difficult 
cases  to  examine  or  interview.  In  the  first  place,  when  they  had  been 
coming  to  the  "Island"  for  almost  as  long  as  they  could  remember, 
they  resented  the  innovation  of  such  a  study,  just  as  one  might  resent  a 
change  in  his  favorite  hotel.  In  the  second  place,  they  frequently 
appeared  to  be  still  suffering  more  or  less  from  the  effects  of  their 
latest  debauch,  during  the  major  part  of  their  term.  Where  this 
was  not  the  case  they  often  showed  so  much  evidence  of  senility 
and  possible  deterioration  resultant  upon  their  alcoholism  that  it  was 
impossible  to  estimate  what  their  original  mental  ability  might  have 
been.  Their  interviews  showed  either  marked  lack  of  veracity  or 
a  slurring  of  the  accuracy  of  their  memory  for  facts  which  made 
their  accounts  both  incomplete  and  unreliable.  The  fact  that  they 
probably  represent  the  most  drifting  elements  of  the  population  adds 
to  the  difficulty  of  securing  even  reasonably  satisfactory  information 
concerning  them.  Since  this  group  of  alcoholic  cases  constituted  at 
this  time  over  fifty  per  cent  of  the  cases  committed  to  the  Workhouse 
for  periods  of  over  ten  days  it  became  apparent  to  us  that  our  study 
of  the  Workhouse,  which  as  we  shall  see  later  was  the  least  satisfactory 
of  all  our  groups  even  without  this  handicap,  would  be  made  almost 


24      STUDY  OF  WCUIEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

entirely  valueless  by  the  erratic  <]ualities  of  this  group.  The  desirable 
solution  of  the  problem  would  have  been  to  make  separate  studies 
of  these  two  Workhouse  groups,  including  100  in  each.  That  was 
not  feasible  and  accordingly  when  nineteen  intoxication  cases  had  been 
studied  it  was  decided  to  restrict  our  studies  for  the  remaining  cases 
to  individuals  whose  present  conviction  did  not  involve  intoxication  in 
any  form.^^ 

Owing  to  the  great  rapidity  with  which  cases  are  received  at  the 
Workhouse  it  seemed  impracticable  to  attempt  to  cover  100  con- 
secutive  cases,  especially  if  both  intoxication  and  other  cases  were 
,  included.  Our  first  plan,  therefore,  was  to  take  them  in  four  groups 
of  25  each.  We  started  our  first  group  in  accordance  with  this  plan 
in  December,  1916,  and  covered  27  cases  within  seven  days.  By  this 
time  we  had  come  to  appreciate  the  special  difficulties  incidental  to 
work  with  the  group  of  intoxication  cases  and  had  decided  to  dis- 
continue testing  them.  Eliminating  these  left  thirteen  cases  received 
consecutively  at  the  Workhouse  during  this  period.  After  excluding 
the  intoxication  cases  we  found  it  possible  to  cover  the  remaining 
number  of  cases  as  one  group  of  consecutive  admissions.  During  the 
latter  period  96  cases  were  received,  making  the  total  number  received 
at  the  Workhouse  and  available  for  study  under  the  conditions  as 
defined  above,  109  cases.  Of  these  it  was  necessary  to  omit  entirely, 
except  for  commitment  data,  seven  cases,^^  making  a  total  of  102  cases 
studied  more  or  less  completely. 

The  special  group  of  women  committed  for  intoxication  included 
twenty-one  cases,  one  of  whom  was  committed  to  Matteawan  and  one 
died  before  there  was  opportunity  to  give  mental  tests.  These  twenty- 
one  cases  include  ten  committed  for  public  intoxication,  seven  for  dis- 
orderly conduct,  and  four  for  vagrancy,  the  latter  two  charges  both 
signifying  intoxication  in  these  cases.  This  small  group  of  cases 
studied  will  be  mentioned  at  various  points  in  our  study  for  the  light 
which  they  may  throw  on  the  characteristics  of  cases  of  this  type.  The 
numbers  are,  however,  too  small  to  justify  the  same  sort  of  statistical 

"  In  addition  to  the  cases  specified  as  public  intoxication  we  have  eliminated 
cases  committed  for  disorderly  conduct  or  vagrancj^  where  the  account  of  the 
offense  makes  clear  that  it  was  primarily  a  case  of   intoxication. 

"  The  reasons  for  omission  of  these  seven  cases  were  as  follows :  One  was 
transferred  to  Matteawan,  two  were  transferred  to  other  city  jails  as  work- 
ers, one  was  in  the  hospital  during  the  whole  of  her  term,  two  were  taken  out 
on  bail  pending  the  results  of  an  appeal  and  did  not  return  during  the  period 
of  investigation,  one  though  received  at  the  Workhouse  was  a  ten-day  com- 
mitment and  was  therefore  not  included. 


ACCOUNT  OF  DELINQUENT  GROUPS  STUDIED       25 

treatment  as  the  rest  of  the  material.  Whenever  mentioned  they  will  be 
clearly  referred  to  as  "Workhouse  Intoxication  Group."  In  consulting 
the  tables  it  is  important  to  remember  that  the  so-called  "Workhouse 
Group"  does  not  include  any  representatives  of  the  large  portion  of 
the  Workhouse  population  who.  have  been  committed  for  intoxication. 

(/)  Prohation  cases  from  the  Women's  Night  Court  of  Manhattan 

and  the  Bronx 

Our  probation  group  is  made  up  of  women  placed  on  probation 
through  the  Women's  Night  Court  of  Manhattan  and  the  Bronx. 
The  original  plan  was  to  secure  a  total  of  100  probation  cases  made 
up  of  women  sentenced  through  the  three  types  of  courts  in  New 
York  City:  viz.,  the  City  Magistrates'  Courts,  the  Courts  of  Special 
Sessions  and  the  Courts  of  General  Sessions.  Since  the  probation 
cases  from  the  Night  Court  are  the  largest  and  most  important 
group  placed  on  probation  through  the  City  Magistrates'  Courts,  it 
was  decided  to  consider  these  representative  of  the  whole  group 
of  women  probationers  from  the  Magistrates'  Courts. 

We  chose  this  as  the  probation  group  with  which  to  begin  our 
study,  considering  it  entirely  problematical  whether  such  an  investiga- 
tion was  practicable  under  the  conditions  of  probation.  After  we 
had  established  the  fact  that  such  a  study  could  be  made  to  advantage 
from  our  point  of  view  and  yet  without  disturbing  the  friendly  re- 
lations existing  between  the  probationer  and  her  probation  officer,  we 
asked  permission  to  begin  a  study  of  a  smaller  group  from  the  Court 
of  Special  Sessions.  This  request  was  not  granted.  Accordingly  it 
was  decided  to  restrict  our  study  to  the  group  of  probationers  from 
the  Night  Court  with  whom  its  practicability  had  been  demonstrated. 
We  regretted  the  necessity  of  omitting  the  other  two  probation  groups,' 
since  it  prevented  our  total  probation  group  from  including  all  types 
of  offenders  who  are  put  on  probation.^* 

"  We  wish  to  express  our  gratitude  to  Mr.  Edwin  J.  Cooley,  Chief  Pro- 
bation Officer,  City  Magistrates'  Courts,  for  his  ready  interest  in  the  carrying 
out  of  this  study  and  his  willingness  that  it  be  undertaken.  To  Miss  Alice 
Smith,  Probation  Officer  of  the  Night  Court,  we  are  indebted  for  constant  and 
detailed  cooperation  which  was  mainly  responsible  for  making  the  work  prac- 
ticable. She  devised  an  arrangement  which  operated,  we  feel  sure,  to  the 
advantage  of  the  probation  officer  and  the  woman  under  consideration  as  well 
as  to  that  of  the  Laboratory  study.  According  to  this  plan  women  who  seemed 
likely  to  be  selected  for  proliation  were  assigned  to  members  of  the  Laboratory 
staff  for  investigation,  just  as,  at  other  times,  they  are  assigned  to  various 
volunteer  organizations  who  assist  the  probation  officer.  In  this  way  we  had 
a  perfectly  natural  avenue  of  approach  to  the  women,  friendly  relations  were 
established,  and  it  was  easy  to  keep  in  touch  with  them  and  complete  our  in- 


^ 


26      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

The  women  placed  on  probation  through  the  Night  Court  may  be 
of  any  age  over  sixteen  years,  though  the  opportunity  for  probation  is 
naturally  given  more  frequently  to  the  younger  women.  By  virtue  of 
the  selection  which  the  court  itself  exercises,  they  fall  into  the  general 
groups  of  offenders  against  chastity,  intoxication  cases,  and  various 
forms   of    disorderly   conduct    and    of    incorrigibility.      All    are    mis- 

j  demeanants.  but  the  group  does  not  include  all  types  of  misdemeanants, 
since  there  are  certain  of  these,  such  as  offenders  against  property, 
drug  users,  etc.,  who  cannot  be  convicted  through  the  Magistrates' 
Courts.  The  group  tends  to  be  made  up  of  first  offenders  or  of 
cases  who  offer  special  promise  of  making  good,  either  because  of 
their    own    personal   qualities    or    because    of    unusually    satisfactory 

.^conditions  in  which  they  can  be  placed.  There  is  a  general  tendency, 
quite  definitely  stated  as  such,  to  give  all  first  offenders  an  oppor- 
tunity on  probation,  unless  there  are  very  clear  reasons  why  they 
need  the  supervision  and  protection  of  an  institution. 

Cases  were  taken  in  consecutive  order  as  they  were  placed  on 
probation  by  the  court,  our  actual  procedure  being  to  have  at  least 
one  member  of  the  Laboratory  staff  in  court  each  night,  ready  to 
interview  each  woman  referred  by  the  judge  to  the  probation  officer 
as  a  probable  case  for  probation.  There  were  102  cases  admitted 
to  probation  between  the  beginning  of  the  study  in  March  and  its 
close  in  July,  1917.  Of  these,  eleven  were  omitted  almost  completely 
from  our  study,  only  the  information  which  we  received  through 
the  probation  officers'  record,  covering  the  woman's  present  offense, 
her  criminal  record,  and  a  few  other  scattering  bits  of  information 
being  available.  These  omissions  were  due  to  a  variety  of  reasons, 
such  that  we  feel  satisfied  that  no  single  type  of  cases  was  being 
selected   out.^^     The   only  exception   to   this   is   the   omission   of   the 

vestigations  after  they  had  heen  placed  on  probation.  Report  of  our  prelimi- 
nary investigations  in  each  case  was  made  to  Miss  Smith,  making  it  unnecessary 
that  this  work  he  duplicated.  In  many  cases  it  was  possible  for  us  to  make 
a  more  complete  investigation  than  would  have  been  possible  for  the  proba- 
tion officer  with  the  many  demands  upon  her  time  for  supervision  of  probation- 
ers as  well  as  for  investigation. 

"The  reasons  for  these  omissions  were  as  follows:  Four  were  sent  out  of  the 
city  to  relatives,  either  the  same  night  that  they  were  placed  on  probation  or 
•  so  shortly  after  this  that  no  investigation  was  practicable ;  four  were  older 
women  whom  we  omitted  intentionally  since  we  felt  that  we  should  have  too 
great  difficulty  in  securing  their  cooperation  ;  one  case  was  committed  to  Belle- 
vue  for  observation  the  day  after  her  admission  to  probation,  and  was  later 
committed  to  a  hospital  for  the  insane ;  two  were  omitted  because  it  happened 
that  their  initial  interview  was  taken  entirely  by  the  probation  officer  and  it 
seemed  unwise  in  their  cases  to  transfer  any  of  the  work  of  investigation  to  an- 
other person. 


ACCOUNT  OF  DELINQUENT  GROUPS  STUDIED      27 

four  older  women.  Because  of  this  omission  our  figures  fail  to  show 
this  small,  but  possibly  fairly  constant,  proportion  of  more  mature 
women  in  this  group.  We  should  add  that,  in  addition  to  these  eleven 
complete  omissions,  there  are  a  considerable  number  of  cases  on 
whom  our  study  is  incomplete  in  some  direction.  Several  of  the  cases, 
in  order  to  be  included  in  the  series  at  all,  had  to  have  all  the  work 
that  was  to  be  done,  including  the  testing,  completed  within  one 
or  two  days,  since  they  were  being  sent  to  parts  of  the  country  too 
far  away  for  visits  to  be  practicable. 

GROUPS  OF  WOMEN  OF  THIS  STATE  WHO  ARE  NOT  INCLUDED  IN  PRESENT 

STUDY 

In  the  foregoing  statement  we  have  shown  what  groups  of  de- 
linquent women  were  included  in  our  study.  It  is  doubtless  important 
to  indicate  also  what  groups  were  entirely  omitted.  We  have  al- 
ready mentioned  the  groups,  closely  similar  to  those  selected  for 
our  study,  which  were  omitted  to  prevent  duplication.  These  omis- 
sions were  the  following:  Of  the  two  reformatories,  the  Western 
House  of  Refuge  at  Albion ;  of  the  private  institutions,  eight  or  more 
institutions  of  the  state  listed  on  page  19 ;  of  the  County  Penitentiaries, 
those  for  Albany,  Erie,  Monroe  arid  Onondaga  Counties.  There  were 
no  omissions  of  Workhouses  so-called,  though  we  did  omit  two  por- 
tions of  the  Workhouse  total,  vis.,  the  very  short  term  commitments 
and  the  intoxication  cases.  For  the  rest  of  the  state,  outside  of  New 
York  City,  county  jails  doubtless  come  nearer  than  anything  else  to 
serving  the  function  of  the  Workhouse.  These  it  was  necessary  to 
omit  entirely.  They  probably  add  no  cases  different  in  type  from 
those  committed  to  the  Workhouse,  though  they  might  materially 
alter  the  proportions  of  different  types.  The  other  important  omis- 
sion from  the  institutional  groups  is  that  of  the  State  Farm  for 
Women  at  Valatie.^^  This  institution  receives  women  over  30  years 
of  age  who  have  had  at  least  five  previous  convictions  within  two 
years.  The  commitments  are  largely  for  intoxication,  so  that  this 
group  corresponds  closely  with  that  of  the  alcoholics  omitted  from 
the  Workhouse  study. 

In  addition  to  these  omissions  from  the  institutional  groups  there 
are  certain  obvious  omissions  from  the  total  number  of  delinquents, 
from  among  those  who  are  not  institutional  cases.  These  are:  (1) 
The  cases  fined.     The  numbers  of  these  are  large  and  cover  a  great 

^*This  institution  has  been  closed   since  the  above  account  was   written. 


28      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

variety  of  offenses,  though  fines  cannot  be  imposed  for  the  most 
grave  offenses,  and  are  not  given  at  present  in  New  York  City  for 
offenses  involving  prostitution.  Fines  may  be  given  to  first  offenders 
or,  for  certain  offenses,  notably  intoxication  and  disorderly  conduct, 
to  very  old  offenders.  (2)  Cases  given  suspended  sentence.  This 
form  of  treatment  also  is  very  common  and  is  applied  to  a  wide  range 
of  offenses.  It  is  given  mainly  in  the  case  of  either  first  or  nearly 
first  offenders.  In  the  various  court  reports  these  cases  are  not 
always  clearly  distinguished  from  the  group  of  those  placed  on  pro- 
bation. (3)  Cases  placed  on  probation  through  Courts  of  General 
and  Special  Sessions,  through  the  Supreme  Court  and  County  Courts, 
and  through  local  police  courts.  The  one  group  of  probation  cases 
which  we  secured  from  the  Women's  Night  Court  of  New  York  City 
cannot  be  considered  as  representative  of  all  groups. 

It  should  be  noted  that  when  we  speak  of  these  various  omissions 
we  are  speaking  of  present  convictions  only.  If  we  consider  the 
total  range  of  sentences  which  our  women  have  had  in  the  course  of 
their  careers  it  is  probable  that  all  types  mentioned  above  have  some 
representative  in  our  total. 

From  a  consideration  of  all  our  groups  and  from  a  certain 
amount  of  observation  of  courts  and  of  other  groups  we  feel  that 
we  have,  among  our  selected  total,  representatives  of  all  important 
types  of  women  delinquents  of  this  state,  with  the  single  exception 
of  those  cases  committed  for  intoxication,  of  whom  we  have  an 
inadequate  representation.  Aside  from  this,  we  have  women  com- 
mitted for  all  types  of  offenses,  through  all  types  of  courts,  given 
sentences  varying  from  probation  to  a  term  of  twenty  years  or  life. 
There  are  first  offenders  and  recidivists.  There  are  women  com- 
mitted for  prostitution  in  some  form,  women  who  are  prostitutes 
but  who  are  committed  for  some  other  offense,  and  women  who  have, 
so  far  as  we  can  learn,  never  been  sexually  irregular.  There  are 
women  whose  court  careers  began  in  childhood  and  women  whose 
first  offense  came  late  in  life.  There  are  women  of  widely  different 
ages  and  from  many  social  classes.  We  feel  convinced,  therefore, 
that  all  the  usual  types  of  women  delinquents  are  included  in  our  study, 
although  we  cannot  claim  that  the  several  types  are  present  in  correct 
proportions. 

We  may  note  further,  among  the  omissions  from  this  study,  the 
women  offenders,  who  are  known  to  exist  in  appreciable  numbers, 
who  escape  conviction  altogether.     How  large  their  numbers  may  be 


ACCOUNT  OF  DELINQUENT  GROUPS  STUDIED       29 

and  what  their  dominant  characteristics  we  have  no  means  of 
determining.  That  they  represent,  on  the  whole,  the  more  efficient 
memhers  of  the  delinquent  group  seems  self-evident,  since  they  manage 
to  pursue  their  chosen  careers  without  interruption  at  the  hands  of 
the  law.  This  may  be  due  to  the  fact  that  they  evade  detection  more 
cleverly,  or  that  they  secure  protection  more  effectively,  or  that, 
even  if  arrested,  they  marshal  their  forces  more  skilfully  to  escape 
conviction. 

REASONS   FOR   PRESENTING   DATA    CLASSIFIED   BY    INSTITUTIONAL   GROUPS 

The  question  may  be  raised,  on  considering  the  data  offered  in  the 
chapters  which  follow,  as  to  why  prominence  is  given  to  the  classifica- 
tion by  institutional  groups,  when  these  may  be  largely  arbitrarily 
determined  and  are  local  in  their  interest.  Two  reasons  may  be  offered, 
of  which  the  first  is  the  more  important. 

(1)  The   separate   institutional   groups   are   the   actual   concrete 
units  with  which  we  started.     Selection  within  any  given  group  is 
as  nearly  random  as  it  could  possibly  be,  whereas  the  make-up  of 
the    total    was    necessarily    determined    by    the    relative    numbers   in 
the  various  sub-groups,  as  well  as  by  the  choice  of  sub-groups.   With  j 
the  material  presented  in  this  way  it  is  possible  for  other  investigators  I 
to  re-group  the  data  in  other  ways  in  accordance  with  their  special ' 
interests.     For  example,  probation  cases  might  be  disregarded  and  | 
only    institutional    commitments    considered,    institutions    of    the    re- 
formatory   type    might    be    thrown    together,    or    still    other    special 
combinations  made. 

(2)  Some  interest  attaches,  locally  at  least,  to  the  attempt  to 
discover  what  principles  of  selection  were  effective  in  determining 
commitments  at  the  time  when  this  investigation  was  made.  The 
answer  to  this  question  may  well  contribute  to  the  solution  of  the 
further  question  as  to  whether  the  present  system  of  commitment 
is  adequate,  or  whether  there  is  need  for  some  additional  device, 
such  as  that  offered  by  a  clearing-house,  for  more  careful  study  of 
women  offenders  before  commitment. 

The  interest,  from  this  point  of  view,  need  not  be  exclusively 
local,  since  other  communities  contain  institutions  corresponding  in 
type  with  those  here  considered,  though  any  one  community  may 
fail  to  contain  all  types.  With  this  in  mind  we  might  well  have 
listed  the  groups  by  type  names,  discarding  the  more  specific  designa- 
tions, using  some  such  terms  as  these:   (a)   State  Reformatory,  (b) 


30      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DIXINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

State  Prison,  (c)  Private  Reformatory  Institution,  (d)  County  Peni- 
tentiary, (e)  City  Workhouse,  (f)  Probation  Group  (Sex  Offenders). 
Additional  data  from  similar  groups  in  other  parts  of  the  country 
should  make  it  possible  eventually  to  determine  whether  any  uniform 
tendencies  are  operative  affecting  the  selection  of  cases  for  particular 
types  of  institutions,  or  whether  selection  is  entirely  determined  by 
changing  local  conditions.  If  the  latter  should  prove  to  be  the  case 
no  permanent  significance  can  be  attached  to  the  comparison  of  the 
local  groups. 


CHAPTER    III 
STATISTICAL  METHODS 

THIS  investigation  attempts  to  discover  the  extent  to  which  cer- 
tain social,  economic  and  psychological  factors  are  associated  in 
a  delinquent  group.  If  relationships  are  to  be  found  whose  significance 
is  general,  it  is  clear  that  a  general  group  must  be  studied.  Par- 
ticular cases,  dramatic  though  they  may  be,  cannot  give  justification 
in  themselves  for  action  affecting  the  group  as  a  whole.  General 
relationships  can  be  established  only  through  the  study  of  a  sample 
selected  at  random  from  the  continual  flow  of  women  into  the 
prisons  and  reformatories. 

Such  a  truly  representative  group  of  delinquent  women  can  only 
be  approximated.  We  have  selected  our  cases  by  studying  consecutive 
commitments  to  a  number  of  typical  institutions.  Using  consecutive 
commitments  seemed  the  surest  way  to  obtain  a  sampling  of  the 
general  group  of  delinquent  women  that  would  be  free  from  the 
influence  of  arbitrary  selection  whether  conscious  or  unconscious. 
The  presence  of  an  individual  in  our  group  is  due  to  no  other  fact 
than  that  she  entered  an  institution  during  the  period  of  investigation. 

The  concepts  underlying  a  study  of  the  facts  and  relationships 
characteristic  of  such  a  representative  group  are  fairly  simple.  In 
the  first  place,  the  various  qualities  of  the  group  observed  must  be 
described.  \\&  want  to  know  something  of  the  intelligence  of  the 
group,  the  amount  of  recidivism,  the  economic  condition  prior  to 
conviction.  In  the  second  place,  relationships  must  be  pointed  out 
where  they  exist.  We  are  interested  both  in  comparisons  between 
groups  of  individuals,  as  for  example  in  the  intelligence  of  delinquent 
women  as  compared  with  the  general  population,  and  in  relationships 
between  the  factors  we  are  studying,  as  between  intelligence  and 
number  of  commitments  or  between  age  at  first. conviction  and  type 
of  offense.  In  the  third  place,  there  must  be  some  statement  of 
what  reservations  must  be  made  in  extending  generalizations  valid  for 
the  particular  group  under  observation  to  the  larger  group  of  which 
the  cases  studied  are  only  a  chance  sample. 

31 


32      STUDY  OF  WOMF.N.  Dl'XINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

These  three  concepts  include  all  that  is  involved  in  the  statistical 
treatment  of  our  material.  The  concepts  themselves  are  not  statistical. 
They  are  too  matter  of  fact  for  that.  The  statistics  are  merely 
a  method  of  realizing  as  far  as  possible  the  scientific  ideal  embodied 
in  the  concepts. 

THE  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  QUALITIES  OF  A  GROUP 

In  describing  a  quality  or  factor,  intelligence  for  example,  as 
it  occurs  in  the  group  of  women  which  we  have  studied,  we  shall 
ordinarily  state  two  things  about  it.  First,  we  shall  give  a  figure 
which  indicates  a  center  about  which  the  measurements  tend  to  cluster, 
an  average  of  the  group  in  the  quality.  In  some  cases  we  shall  give 
the  arithmetic  mean,  in  other  cases  the  median,  sometimes  perhaps 
the  mode.  Each  of  these  statistical  terms  has  a  special  meaning 
of  its  own ;  but  the  function  of  all  is  to  indicate  a  somewhat  central 
point  of  reference  for  the  group.  Second,  we  shall  give  a  figure 
which  indicates  the  amount  the  individual  cases  are  scattered  about 
the  average  or  central  tendency.  The  scatter  or  dispersion  is  a  most 
important  consideration,  since  this  shows  the  diversity  or  variability 
of  the  group.  Sometimes  groups  that  are  of  the  same  average  intelli- 
gence differ  greatly  in  variability,  and,  of  course,  when  the  variability 
is  high,  extreme  cases  are  much  more  likely  to  be  found.  Variability 
or  the  dispersion  of  a  group  is  indicated  by  statistical  constants,  some- 
times by  the  average  deviation,  more  frequently  by  the  standard 
deviation  (^cr^  These  two  constants  have  each  a  special  significance, 
but  for  most  purposes  of  interpretation,  they  may  be  thought  of  as 
meaning  the  same  thing.  Roughly,  about  two-thirds  of  the  cases 
measured  will  be  found  within  the  distance  of  the  standard  deviation 
from  the  central  tendency.  Thus,  if  the  average  intelligence  of  the 
Bedford  women  is  80  points  and  the  standard  deviation  is  6  points, 
about  two-thirds  of  them  will  normally  fall  between  74  and  86, 
that  is  within  6  points  on  either  side  of  80.  Cases  as  far  removed  from 
the  average  as  two  times  the  standard  deviation  rarely  occur,  and 
cases  at  a  distance  of  three  times  this  constant  are  most  exceptional. 
In  the  illustration  just  imagined,  very  few  women  indeed  would 
be  found  to  score  as  low  as  62  or  as  high  as  98. 

Thus  the  average  or  central  tendency  and  the  standard  deviation 
or  index  of  variability  are  the  statistical  constants  we  shall  most 
need  to  describe  a  quality  or  trait  of  our  groups.  Both  are  important 
in  judging  the  nature  of  any  quality. 


STATISTICAL  METHODS  33 

COMPARISONS    AND   RELATIONSHIPS 

After  a  quality  of  one  group  of  individuals  has  been  described, 
it  is  often  desirable  to  compare  it  with  the  same  quality  of  another 
group.  In  this  way,  we  may  discover  that  the  average  intelligence 
of  women  sent  to  Bedford  is  lower  than  that  of  the  general  popula- 
tion. When  we  compare  standard  deviations,  we  may  find  that  the 
variability  of  the  Bedford  group  in  intelligence  is  not  so  great  as 
that  of  the  general  population. 

These  comparisons  are  easily  made,  the  one  precaution  necessary 
being  to  make  certain  that  the  quality  or  trait  is  being  observed 
under  like  circumstances  for  the  two  groups. 

Relationships  are  only  more  extended  comparisons.  We  may 
find  by  comparison  that  the  Workhouse  women  are  lower  in  in- 
telligence than  Bedford  women ;  and  again  that  Bedford  women  are 
lower  than  Penitentiary;  and  Penitentiary  lower  than  Magdalen.  If 
we  put  all  three  comparisons  together,  we  have  clearly  a  relationship 
between  type  of  institution  and  intelligence. 

The  interpretation  of  relationships  is  a  practical  matter.  It  is 
through  relationships  that  the  many  tangled  threads  of  social  causes 
can  be  partially  straightened  out.  Relationships  can  be  made  the 
basis  of  prediction  and  of  action ;  and  the  closer  the  relationship, 
the  more  definite  the  prediction  and  the  surer  the  action.  For  this 
reason,  we  require  a  method  of  expressing  closeness  of  relation. 

The  common  ways  of  stating  degree  of  relationship  are  the 
correlation  coefficient,  the  correlation  ratio  and  the  contingency  co- 
efficient. All  are  misleading  in  that  they  give  an  unwarranted 
impression  of  the  possibility  of  accurate  prediction.  These  coeffi- 
cients vary  from  0  to  1,  0  for  a  relation  such  as  would  occur  in 
the  long  run  by  chance,  1  for  a  perfect  agreement.  The  coefficients 
are  usually  expressed  as  decimals,  as  .18,  .37,  .53.  The  reader  should 
be  warned  that  a  coefficient  of  .50  by  no  means  indicates  that  50 
per  cent  of  the  error  of  prediction  has  been  removed. 

The  correlation  coefficient  and-  correlation  ratio  refer  to  different 
types  of  mathematical  relationships  between  the  variables  related. 
If  there  is  a  large  difference  between  these  constants,  it  means 
that  the  methods  of  prediction  must  be  studied  mathematically  with 
great  care  if  the  best  is  to  be  found.  For  interpretative  purposes 
in  this  investigation,  it  is  usually  not  necessary  to  distinguish  be- 
tween the  correlation  ratio  and  correlation  coefficient.     Usually  both 


34      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

are  relatively  low,  the  number  of  cases  is  not  large,  and  under  these 
circumstances  the  differences  between  these  two  measures  of  relation- 
ship are  less  significant. 

The  partial  correlation  coefficient  is  occasionally  used  in  this  in- 
vestigation. This  coefficient  varies  from  0  to  1  as. does  the  correlation 
coefficient  proper.  It  is  used  to  express  the  relation  between  two 
variables  for  constant  values  of  a  third  (or  more)  which  cannot  be 
experimentally  controlled.  Care  should  be  taken  to  ascertain  exactly 
what  this  third  variable  is  in  every  case,  and  to  appreciate  just  what 
it  would  mean  to  have  all  individuals  equal  in  this  variable.  The 
meaning  of  the  partial  relationship  of  the  two  variables  in  question 
can  be  more  easily  understood  in  this  way. 

STATISTICAL   RESERVATIONS 

When  we  find  the  average  intelligence  of  a  group  which  we 
measure  to  be  80  points,  we  want  to  be  able  to  make  some  state- 
ment about  the  intelligence  of  the  larger  group  of  which  the  in- 
dividuals we  actually  did  observe  are  only  a  small,  chance  sample. 
How  accurate  a  measure  of  the  total  group's  intelligence  is  80?  What 
reservations  must  be  made? 

The  amount  of  reservation  is  stated  as  plus  or  minus  a  certain 
amount.  That  is,  the  true  value  may  be  more  or  less  than  that 
observed.  Thus,  the  average  intelligence  of  the  total  group  might  be 
stated  as  80  ±  2.  The  2  is  really  an  index  of  resen-ation, — it  is 
a  sort  of  standard  deviation  of  the  average. 

The  ±  2  is  computed  mathematically, — its  purpose  is  to  give 
us  a  definite  point  to  start  from.  The  amount  of  reser^'ation  we 
make  depends  on  how  cautious  we  must  be.  With  intelligence  stated 
as  80  ±  2,  the  chances  are  somewhat  better  than  2  to  1  that  the 
average  of  the  whole  group,  judging  from  the  measurements  on  our 
sampling  of  individuals,  is  not  less  than  78  nor  more  than  82.  The 
chances  are  about  20  to  1  that  it  lies  between  76  and  84;  they  are 
more  than  300  to  1  that  it  lies  between  74  and  86.  Thus  it  is  fairly  un- 
likely that  the  true  constant  lies  outside  a  range  of  twice  the  ±  2,  and  ii 
is  almost  certain  not  to  lie  outside  a  range  of  three  times  this  figure. 

An  observed  difiference  between  two  averages  also  must  be  stated 
with  reservations.  The  difference  between  Bedford  women  and  women 
in  general  in  intelligence  might  be  20  ±  4,  in  favor  of  the  general  group. 
d=  4  is  our  starting  point,  and  we  can  qualif}-  our  statements  as  much 
as  we  like.     We  are  reasonably  sure  in  this  example  that  women  in 


STATISTICAL  METHODS  35 

general  excel  Bedford  women  by  more  than  12  points,  and  we  are 
practically  certain  that  the  difference  is  more  than  8,  these  figures  12 
and  8  being  respectively  2  and  3  times  the  ±  4  from  20  points — the 
difference  observed.  We  are  sure  that  the  difference  in  intelligence  is 
not  0,  and  that  the  Bedford  women  do  not  excel. 

Correlations  are  also  stated  with  reservations,  as  .32  ±  .05.  Is 
there  any  chance  that  if  we  had  measured  all  possible  cases  instead  of 
only  our  sample,  we  would  have  found  a  zero  relationship?  Prac- 
tically none,  for  this  correlation  coefficient  .32  is  more  than  6  times 
the  index  of  reservation. 

When  we  are  studying  the  differences  between  averages  or  be- 
tween standard  deviations  or  between  correlation  coefficients,  we 
always  find  out  how  many  times  larger  the  observed  difference  is 
than  the  index  of  reservation.  We  compute  the  ratio  of  the  difference 
to  this  index.  If  the  ratio  is  2  we  are  fairly  sure  the  difference  is 
really  in  the  direction  we  observed  it,  if  it  is  2.5  we  are  very  confident, 
and  if  it  is  3  we  are  practically  certain.  No  arbitrary  ratio  can 
be  set  as  indicating  absolute  certainty,  for  after  all  certainly  is  at 
best  a  matter  of  probabilities. 

TECHNICAL    NOTES 

1.  The  a  of  statistical  constants  is  used  throughout  instead  of 
the  P.  E.  There  appears  no  virtue  in  the  further  reduction  to 
P.  E.  since    a   tables  are  now  available. 

2.  In  the  histograms,  showing  distribution  of  groups  according 
to  various  categories,  the  mean  and  <r  have  been  indicated,  respectively, 
by  a  dot,  whose  location  indicates  the  position  of  the  mean,  and  arrows 
leading  from  the  dot,  thus  -< —  •  — ^.  The  distance  from  the 
dot  to  the  tip  of  either  arrow  equals  cr.  The  entire  figure  illustrated 
above,  therefore,  represents  2a  and  indicates  graphically  the  range 
of  variation  from  the  mean  implied  in  the  expression    ±<t. 

3.  The  probabilities  favoring  the  sign  of  an  observed  difference 
are  twice  as  great  as  those  favoring  inclusion  within  ±a-,  due  to  the 
fact  that  only  one-half  the  outlying  probabilities  are  critical  for  the 
argument. 

4.  Testing  by  Blakeman's  criterion  was  done  extensively,  but  little 
light  came  from  it.  Where  inexcusable  non-linearity  was  found 
by  test,  the  regression  was  frequently  excessively  irregular,  with 
no  indication  of  the  form  of  the  relation,  while  a  few  cases  of  ap- 
preciable non-linear  form  tested  linear. 


CHAPTER  IV 
METHODS  OF  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION 

METHOD   OF   ESTIMATION    VERSUS    METHOD   OF   EXAMINATION 

IN  studying  the  mental  capacity  of  a  given  group  there  are  two 
methods  possible:  the  method  of  estimation  and  the  method  of 
examination. 

The  first  method  figures  mainly  where  the  groups  studied  are  very 
large  or  so  conditioned  that  individual  examinations  are  not  prac- 
ticable. This  is  the  method  used  by  Goring^  in  his  study  of  3000 
English  convicts,  by  Lombroso  and  the  older  penologists,  and  in  most 
of  the  "surveys"  of  large  districts. 

Its  necessity  is  evident  under  certain  conditions  where  the  groups 
are  too  large  or  the  time  too  short  to  make  individual  examining 
feasible — although  the  system  of  group  testing  employed  in  the  Army 
has  opened  a  way  to  the  solution  of  many  of  these  difficulties.  There 
are  certain  other  conditions  which  render  examining  impracticable,  as 
for  example,  where  one  is  dealing  with  a  group  over  which  one  has 
no  control,  as  in  the  house-to-house  canvass  method  of  many  of  the 
surveys,  or  the  grading  of  large  industrial  groups  where  the  novelty 
and  seeming  tendency  of  the  examination  method  toward  paternalism 
may,  for  a  time  yet,  force  us  to  have  recourse  to  the  older  method  of 
mere  estimation.  But  on  the  whole  this  method  is  fast  being  sup- 
planted by  the  more  exact  one. 

The  method  of  the  intelligence  examination  is  comparatively  recent 
in  development  but  not  so  recent  but  that  one  is  surprised  to  find  in 
so  important  a  work  as  Goring's  no  mention  made  of  it.  He,  in  fact, 
specifically  deplores  the  lack  of  instruments  which  would  allow  one 
to  give  to  mental  measurements  the  same  degree  of  exactness  that  the 
tape  and  the  callipers  afiford  for  physical,  but  does  not  even  suggest 
that  anything  is  being  done  toward  the  realization  of  such  an  object. 
More  clearly,  perhaps,  than  any  one  else,  he  recognizes  the  pitfalls  of 

'  Op.  cit. 

36 


METHODS  OF  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION       Z7 

the  method  which  he  is  employing  and  makes  every  effort  to  safe- 
guard himself.      He   says : 

"Estimates  of  mental  qualities  can  be  made:  and  every  day  the  world, 
colloquially,  does  make  them,  with  a  more  or  less  broad  degree  of  ac- 
curacy. ]\Iany  judgments  of  the  kind,  truly,  are  quite  valueless;  for, 
in  so  many  cases,  distinctions  of  mental  and  moral  characters  are 
animated  by  personal  feeling.  Yet,  because  opinions,  biassed  by  feelings 
of  generosity  or  malice,  must  be  ignored,  that  is  no  reason  for  disregard- 
ing the  judgments  of  a  just  critic  on  the  grounds  that  mental  charac- 
ters are  beyond  the  range  of  legitimate  observation.  Personal  estimations 
of  both  mental  and  physical  attributes,  if  carefully  made  and  recorded 
by  an  unbiassed  and  disinterested  investigator,  whose  personal  equation 
can  be  estimated  and  allowed  for,  represent  evidence  of  substantially  the 
same  character,  and  of  equal  value  scientifically,  as  that  produced  by 
measurement.  And  it  is  precisely  for  this  reason — because,  starting  as 
they  did  from  preconceived  theories,  we  cannot  be  certain  that  crimino- 
logical investigators  in  the  past  were  not  prejudiced,  that  their  observa- 
tions upon  criminals  were  not  warped  by  the  desire  to  fit  fact  to  theory — 
it  is  precisely  for  this  reason,  and  not  because  we  discredit  the  human 
power  of  estimating  broad  differences  of  degree  or  magnitude  without 
the  aid  of  callipers  and  tape,  that  we  asserted  at  the  commencement  of 
the  present  work  that  criminal  anthropology  must  be  built  upon  measure- 
ments, and  upon  measurements  only.  Measurements  are  relatively  free 
from  the  personal  equation  of  the  investigator;  they  record  the  actual 
dimensions  of  an  object,  and  not  its  apparent  size,  as  viewed  by  a  biassed 
observer:  and,  consequently,  the  atmosphere  of  disquieting  doubt  is 
absent  from  generalization  or  theory  based  upon  measurements.  But 
coming  now  to  mental  characters,  we  do  not  say  that,  because  non- 
measurable,  these  therefore  cannot  be  observed;  we  do,  however,  contend 
that  broad  generalizations  upon  the  mental  characters  of  the  criminal 
must  leave  the  critical  mind  cold  and  unconvinced  until  they  have  been 
based  upon  facts,  more  unquestionably  accurate,  and  more  concise  in  state- 
ment, than  those  general  impressions  of  the  truth  which  have  been 
presented  in  the  past  by  the  leading  exponents  of  criminal  anthropology."^ 

Turning  now  to  the  other  method,  that  of  examination,  it  seems 
inconsistent  at  the  first  glance  to  insist  that  the  method  of  estimation 
is  less  satisfactory,  since  we  are  compelled  to  admit  that  the  cri- 
terion of  value  for  a  mental  test  is  in  the  last  analysis  its  agreement 
with  the  judgments  of  competent  observers.  It  ma}^  therefore,  seem 
illogical  to  argue  for  the  supplanting  of  the  method  of  estimation 
by  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  mental  examinations,  but  its  justi- 

^  Op.  cit.,  page  237. 

49119 


38      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

•  fication  rests  on  two  facts.  First,  it  enables  one  to  obtain  in  a  brief 
'period  information  which  it  would  take  many  times  as  long  to  obtain 

'  by  the  other  method;  and,  second,  it  possesses  a  quality  of  uniformity 
very  difficult  to  obtain  by  estimates.  Even  if  one  could  assume  the 
judgment  of  the  observer  to  be  entirely  intelligent  and  free  from  any 
emotional  bias  it  would  still  happen,  in  all  probability,  that  each 
observer  would  tend  to  make  his  judgment  in  terms  of  the  persons 
with  whom  he  has  been  in  contact.  That  is,  the  college  professor  might 
judge  as  "stupid"  such  of  his  stvidents  as  fell  markedly  below  the 
others  in  ability,  while  the  manager  of  a  group  of  unskilled  laborers 
might  rank  as  "bright"  individuals  who  excelled  their  fellows  but  who 
actually  fell  below  the  mental  level  of  even  the  most  stupid  of  the 
other  group.  Such  a  scale  as  that  of  Pearson,  to  be  described  later, 
aims  to  reduce  such  discrepancies  by  presenting  an  absolute  scale  on 
which  judgments  should  be  made.  Adequate  evidence  has  not  been 
offered,  however,  to  show  that  judgments  based  even  on  such  a  scale 
are  free  from  the  influence  of  personal  bias  of  one  sort  or  another. 

The  method  of  examination,  therefore,  while  it  calls  for  the  serv- 
ices of  a  special  examiner  and  the  time  necessary  to  make  the  exami- 
nation, and  requires  as  well  a  certain  amount  of  cooperation  from  the 
individuals  to  be  tested,  outranks  the  older  method  in  that  it  enables 
a  judgment  of  mentality  to  be  made  within  a  few  days  which  it  would 
take  weeks  or  months  to  reach  by  the  judgment  method,  and  in  that 
it  provides  a  uniform  and  impersonal  grading  extremely  difficult  and 
in  many  instances  impossible  to  obtain  in  any  other  way.  It  thus 
makes  possible  comparison  of  groups  of  very  different  mental  levels. 

FACTORS    AFFECTING    CHOICE    OF    TESTS 

The  selection  of  a  series  of  psychological  tests  which  will  satisfac- 
torily diagnose  the  mentality  of  a  particular  group  of  individuals  is, 
however,  even  at  the  present  time,  a  condition  which  is  still  devoutly 
to  be  sought.  The  work  that  has  been  done  toward  establishing  norms 
for  one  test  or  another  has  been  carried  on  mostly  on  some  specific 
group  and  is  applicable  mainly  to  that  group.  Due  to  the  fact  that 
this  problem  has  been  in  the  past  mainly  of  interest  to  the  schoolmen, 
we  find  that  the  "subjects"  for  their  studies  have  been  largely  recruited 
from  the  ranks  of  college  students,  or  grade  school  children.  But  with 
the  recognition  of  the  importance  of  such  examinations  there  is  fast 
piling  up  an  accumulation  of  data  in  other  fields,  less  scholastic,  which 
will  furnish  a  more  nearly  unselected  group  for  comparison. 


METHODS  OF  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION       39 

There  are  two  important  aspects  of  the  field  of  mental  testing: 
first,  the  diagnosing  of  the  mentality  of  a  developing  child  and  de- 
termining his  mental  ability  as  proportionate  to  his  physical  age,  and 
second,  the  estimating  of  the  mental  capacity  of  an  individual  from  a 
particular  group  with  reference  to  his  rank  in  that  group.  This  lat- 
ter problem  will,  of  course,  remain  unfinished  until  the  time  when 
each  specific  group  can  itself  be  compared  with  figures  for  the  general 
population,  since  any  individual  may  be  thought  of  as  belonging  to  an 
indefinite  number  of  groups  of  which  the  most  comprehensive  is  the 
whole  population.  As  we  have  earlier  stated,  ours  is  a  group  which 
may  fairly  be  assumed  to  be  mentally  adult  so  that  the  first  problem 
is  not  properly  applicable  here.  The  "mental  ages,"  used  in  express- 
ing the  results  of  the  Stanford-Binet,  we  think  of  as  merely  a  quan- 
titative expression  of  the  score. 

Recognizing  that  ours  is  clearly  an  aberrant  group,  we  have  aimed,  l 
in  so  far  as  possible,  to  employ  only  tests  which  have  been  previously 
standardized  with  more  nearly  unselected  subjects.     It  is  because  of 
their  wide   application   to  a   relatively  heterogeneous   population  that  | 
we  have  given  so  much  weight  to  the  tests  of  the  Binet  type  and  those 
of  the  Woolley  series.     In  view  of  the  eccentricity  of  our  group  and  ( 
our  lack  of  facilities  for  establishing  norms  we  have  ourselves  devised 
no  new  tests. 

ESTABLISHMENT  OF   METHODS  ON   BEDFORD  GROUP 

The  data  on  which  our  establishment  of  measures  of  the  mental 
status  of  these  individuals  was  mainly  based  were  obtained  from  a 
more  intensive  study  on  a  large  group  of  women  committed  to  the 
Bedford  Reformatory  between  March,  1915,  and  August,  1917.  This 
group  includes  the  102  cases  which  we  have  called  the  "Contemporary 
Bedford  Group"  which  were  studied  during  the  year  1916-1917  and 
used  in  comparison  with  our  other  prison  groups.  The  number  is 
raised  to  343  by  the  addition  of  241  cases  which  were  committed  to 
Bedford  between  the  dates  of  March,  1915,  and  September,  1916. 
They  represent  a  practically  consecutive  series  of  commitments  be- 
tween the  dates  mentioned.  (The  actual  number  of  commitments  dur- 
ing this  time  was  352.) 

Conditions  of  Testing 

The  conditions  for  testing  this  group  were  exceptionally  good.  The 
women  on  their  arrival  at  Bedford  are  taken  directly  to  the  Reception 


40      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

Cottage  where  they  are  held  in  strict  quarantine  for  a  minimum  of  two 
weeks.  During  this  time  each  woman  is  locked  in  a  separate  room, 
and  is  allowed  no  communication  with  the  other  inmates.  This  re- 
sulted very  happily  for  our  work,  as  it  not  only  cut  out  the  factor  of 
one  subject  coaching  another  on  the  problems  she  w^as  to  be  given, 
but  also  enabled  us  to  deal  with  each  individual  alone,  without  the 
background  of  her  position  among  her  fellows.  One  is  tempted  to 
emphasize  this  point  after  working  with  a  group  where  the  subjects 
w^ere  taken  directly  from  the  general  prison  population.  We  have  one 
case  in  mind  which  had  to  be  dropped  from  our  series  because  an  initial 
"grouchiness"  was  augmented  to  such  a  degree  by  her  desire  to  "save 
her  face"  before  her  mates  that  it  developed  into  so  determined  an 
obstinacy  as  to  make  the  results  of  our  testing  worthless. 

The  first  contact  between  the  Bedford  girl  and  the  Laboratory  was 
made  by  the  sociologist  who  established  friendly  relations  by  showing 
a  sympathetic  interest  in  her  case  and  a  willingness  to  do  whatever  she 
could  to  help  her  to  adjust  herself  to  the  new  conditions.  After  this, 
one  of  the  psychologists  brought  the  girl  to  the  Laboratory  for  a  series 
of  testings.  These  series  generally  covered  a  period  of  five  or  ten 
days,  depending  on  whether  the  longer  or  shorter  series  was  used. 

The  physical  conditions  of  testing  were  excellent.  The  Laboratory, 
being  located  in  the  country,  is  spared  all  the  street  noises  ordinarily 
unavoidable.  We  have  allowed  no  visitors  to  be  present  during  the 
testing  and  have  never  attempted  to  use  the  examination  as  anything 
like  a  cHnic. 

The  examiners  always  aimed  to  maintain  a  cordial  and  friendly 
attitude.  Introducing  the  "play  element"  so  much  recommended  in 
deahng  with  children  is  of  course  quite  out  of  place  here.  We  en- 
deavored particularly  to  dispel  the  bugaboo  of  a  "brain  test,"  and  of 
ourselves  as  "the  doctors  that  send  you  to  the  crazy  house." 

We  tried  in  general  to  get  our  subjects  into  an  attitude  that  was 
friendly,  responsive  and  eager,  without  being  hampered  by  self-con- 
sciousness or  the  nervousness  which  results  from  an  over-anxiety 
to  do  well.  We  benefited  indirectly  by  the  quarantine  period  in  that 
by  the  time  a  girl  had  been  alone  in  her  room  for  a  few  days  she  quite 
enjoyed  her  visit  to  the  Laboratory  and  welcomed  the  labor  of  work- 
ing at  tests  for  an  hour  in  preference  to  the  tedium  of  sitting  idle  in 
her  room.  If  the  examination  w^as  interrupted  or  any  serious  error  in 
administering  a  test  occurred  the  results  were  dropped  from  the  series. 

On  the  W'hole  we  feel  satisfied  that  the  showing  which  these  women 


METHODS  OF  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION       41 

made  on  the  tests  given  them  represents  pretty  closely  what  they  are 
capable  of  doing  under  optimal  conditions.  Attempts  to  malinger  or 
try  to  appear  stupid  or  erratic  on  the  tests  have  not  made  any  serious 
trouble  for  us.  In  the  possible  two  instances  where  it  was  tried,  it 
was  very  clearly  an  attempt  to  avoid  taking  the  tests  without  openly 
refusing,  rather  than  an  overt  effort  to  deceive.  There  is  of  course 
no  real  incentive  to  malingering  in  our  problems.  We  encountered 
one  psychopathic  girl  who  was  a  "practical  joker,"  to  whom  we  doffed 
our  hats.  She  impressed  upon  us  the  conviction  that  once  a  subject's 
sense  of  humor  is  allowed  to  run  rampant,  the  end  of  the  science  of 
mental  testing  is  in  sight. 

Standardization  of  Methods  of  Giving  and  of  Scoring  Tests 

In  the  giving  of  tests  throughout  our  work  we  aimed  at  a  close 
uniformity  of  method.  To  this  end  the  instructions  for  giving  each 
test  were  written  out  in  detail  and  committed  to  memory  by  each 
one  of  the  examiners.  In  this  way  we  endeavored  to  make  certain 
that  the  personal  equation  which  enters  into  every  mental  examination 
was  reduced  to  a  point  where  its  effects  were  negligible. 

The  methods  of  scoring  the  results  were  likewise  worked  out  in 
most  complete  detail  and  reduced  to  writing.  Each  examiner  marked 
the  results  on  this  basis.  During  the  examination  the  subject's  re- 
sponse was  taken  down  verbatim  on  blanks  specially  prepared  for 
each  test.  This  slowed  down  the  progress  of  the  examination  some- 
what, but  we  felt  that  the  gain  in  accuracy  obtained  thereby  justified  it, 
since  this  enabled  a  second  examiner  to  check  from  the  actual  data 
the  marking  of  the  first,  ^^^e  feel  that  this  method  gives  results  fully 
as  uniform  as  Terman's  method  of  having  all  the  evaluating  done  by 
one  person. 

Preliminary  Intensive  Test  Series 

Recognizing  that  in  selecting  a  series  of  tests  for  final  use,  it  was 
an  easier  task  to  prune  down  from  an  over-extensive  series  than  to 
build  up  from  one  too  meager,  we  started  our  work  with  a  very  in- 
tensive study  of  120  successive  commitments.  This  study  covered  a 
period  of  at  least  teji  days'  individual  testing- — each  day's  period 
being  an  hour  in  length — and  approximately  three  days  of  group 
testing.  The  limits  of  the  present  report  force  us  merely  to  list 
here  the  tests  used  and  reserve  any  description  of  them  or  of  the 
results  obtained  thereon  for  later  publication. 


42      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

Wherever  it  was  practicable  to  do  so  we  attempted  to  gage  the 
reliabihty  of  a  test  by  giving  two  series  of  the  same  test,  e.g.,  two  lists 
of  opposites,  two  forms  of  canceling  unfamiliar  figures. 

We  made  it  a  basic  principle  that  in  giving  a  test  we  should,  as  far 
as  possible,  make  sure  that  the  subject  understands  what  she  is 
expected  to  do.  To  this  end  we  made  extensive  use  of  examples 
and  sample  sheets.  It  has  been  contended  that  this  capacity  to 
understand  quickly  is  in  itself  a  part  of  what  is  being  tested,  but 
such  arguments  seem  to  us  to  cloud  the  issue,  because  in  that  case 
one  would  be  consistently  overweighting  this  factor  by  complicating 
every  test  with  its  presence.  It  is  quite  true  that  in  some  tests,  like 
the  Capacity  to  Follow  Directions,  a  stupid  subject  often  loses  track 
of  what  he  is  expected  to  do  and  finishes  the  test,  so  to  speak,  ad  lib., 
and  that  this  is  in  itself  an  essential  part  of  the  test.  But  we  feel 
that  this  is  an  entirely  different  performance  from  that  of  a  subject 
who  is  entirely  at  sea  from  the  start  and  who,  in  consequence,  confuses 
his  record  by  demanding  more  instructions,  or,  becoming  discouraged 
at  his  inability  to  understand,  gives  up  the  test  without  a  real  effort. 

To  speak  first  of  the  tests  of  the  Binet  type — we  had  been  quite 
puzzled  at  the  conflicting  figures  obtained  therewith  by  various  ex- 
aminers and  on  closer  examination  were  equally  appalled  at  the 
variations  in  the  technique  of  giving  and  method  of  scoring  them. 
We  were  finally  driven  to  the  necessity  of  reducing  to  tabular  form 
the  specific  instructions  for  giving  and  evaluating  these  tests,  as  formu- 
lated by  the  principal  exponents  of  the  Binet  system  in  this  country. 
After  we  had  finished  this  time-consuming  task  we  became  convinced 
that  a  problem  of  considerable  interest  would  be  a  comparison  of  the 
same  individuals  when  tested  by  the  original  Binet  method  and  by  the 
two  chief  modifications  of  this,  vis.,  the  Yerkes-Bridges  Point  Scale 
and  the  Stanford-Binet.  We  accordingly  drew  up  a  series  of  instruc- 
tions that  enabled  us  to  score  an  individual  by  each  of  the  three 
methods  without  repeating  separate  tests  where  these  were  identical 
or  nearly  so.    The  process  will  be  described  in  detail  in  a  later  paper. 

Dr.  Weidensall,^  formerly  psychologist  at  this  Laboratory,  has 
made  an  extensive  study  of  the  results  of  testing  88  Bedford  women 
by  the  scale  devised  by  Dr.  Woolley  *  as  compared  with  the  results 
obtained  by  Dr.   Woolley   in  her  study  of  the   working  children   of 

*0p.  cit. 

*  Woolley,  Helen  Thompson,  and  Fischer,  Charlotte  R.,  "Mental  and  Physical 
Measurements  of  Working  Children."     Psychol.  Monog.,  vol.  18,  no.  1,  1914. 


METHODS  OF  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION       43 

Cincinnati.  We  regard  Dr.  Woolley's  norms  as  the  best  data  avail- 
able for  comparison  with  our  women,  and  we  accordingly  dupli- 
cated Dr.  Weidensall's  work,  in  that  we  used  practically  all  of  the 
tests  reported  by  Dr.  Woolley  in  her  paper  of  1914.  It  had  been 
our  intention  to  make  a  comparison  of  our  results  with  those  of 
Dr.  Woolley  by  using  the  same  method  of  treatment,  i.e.,  the  method 
of  percentile  groupings,  but  since  one  such  report  has  already  come 
out  from  this  Laboratory  it  seemed  wiser  to  postpone  such  a  study. 
We  list  briefly  the  tests  which  were  given  in  our  intensive  series : 

I.  Test  Scries  Used.^ 

^  \.     Binet-Simon  Scale  1911   (both  Binet  (Town  translation)  and  God- 
dard  forms). 
\/2.     Yerkes-Bridges   Point    Scale. 
t-  3.     Stanford-Binet   Scale. 
u'4.     Woolley   Series. 

a.  Sentence  completion. 

b.  Association   by   opposites. 

c.  Cancelation  of  a's.  ^  u 

d.  Memory     for     digits     after     the     auditory-visual-articulatory 

method  of  presentation. 

e.  Substitution  or  symbol  digit  test. 

f.  Strength   of  grip. 

g.  Steadiness  of  hand. 

h.     Rapidity    of    hand    movement, 
i.     Card   sorting. 
j.     Visual  and  auditory  acuity. 
Height  and  weight  records  were  taken  from  the  measurements  made 
by  the  Reformatory  physician.    Tests  of  vital  capacity  were  not  made. 

II.  Individual  Tests  Used. 

The  remaining  tests  have  been  drawn  from  many  sources.  Some  are 
standard  tests  of  very  wide  application  and  others  are  quite  recent  and 
have  been  in  less  general  use. 

^  For  account  of  the  procedures  used  in  these  series  see  the  following  ref- 
erences : 

Binet,  A.  and  Simon,  Th.,"A  Method  of  Measuring  the  Development  of 
the  Intelligence  of  Young  Children."     Translated  by  Town,  C.  H. 

Goddard,  H.  H.  "The  Binet-Simon  Measuring  Scale  for  Intelligence."  Re- 
vised.    The  Training  School,  Vol.  VIII,  No.  4,  June,  1911. 

Goddard,  H.  H.  "Standard  Method  for  Giving  the  Binet  Test."  Trainitig 
School,  Vol.  X,  No.  2,  1913. 

Yerkes,  R.  M.,  Bridges,  J.  W.,  and  Ilardwick,  R.  "A  Point  Scale  for 
Measuring  JNlental  Ability."     1915. 

Terman,  L.  M.     "The  Measurement  of  Intelligence."     1916. 

Woolley,  H.  T.  and  Fischer,  C.  R.     Op.  cit. 


44      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

*    1.     Memory  for  digits  after  the  visual  method  of  presentation. 
'      2.     Memory    for    digits    after    the    auditory    method    of    presentation. 
Same  type  of  numher  series  used  for  1  and  2  as  for  auditory-visual-articu- 
latory  presentation  (WooUey  series). 

3.  Memory  for  ideas  of  a  logical  passage  visually  presented  (Healy).® 

4.  Memory  for  ideas  of  a  logical  passage  auditorily  presented 
(Healy).6 

5.  Memory   for  ohjects  in  a  series   (Ellis — unpublished  data). 

"     6.     Knox   cubes.      Memory    for    movement    in    a    serial    order.      Both 
the  original  Knox  series  and  the  series  devised  by  Pintner  were  used.'^ 

7.  "Aussage"  tests— suggestibility  and  fidelity  of  report.  Two  pic- 
tures used — "The  Disputed  Case"  and  "The  Doctor."^ 

8.  Free  association  test.     Kent-Rosanoff  list.'' 

9.  Controlled  association — action-agent.  Two  lists  taken  from  Wood- 
worth  and  Wells. ^"^ 

"^10.     Controlled    association — mixed   relations.      Two    lists    taken    from 
Woodworth  and  Wells.^° 

11.  Cancelation  of  single  digits. ^° 

12.  Cancelation  of  number  groups  containing  a  specified  pair  of 
digits. 1° 

13.  Cancelation  of  words  containing  a  specified  pair  of  letters. ^^ 

14.  Cancelation  of  unfamiliar  figures.     Two  sets  designed  by  Franz. ^^ 

15.  Trabue  completion  test.  Both  the  preliminary  set  of  56  sentences 
and  the  later  Language  Scale  A  were  used.^' 

'^'16.     Pictorial  completion   (Healy).^* 

^^\7.     Construction  puzzles  A  and  B    (Healy  and  Fernald).^^ 

18.  Ellis  Island  construction  puzzles :  Knox's  "Moron"  and  "Diamond 
Frame,"  and  Kempf's  "Diagonal."  ^^ 

*  Healy,  W.  and  Fernald,  G.  M.  "Tests  for  Practical  Mental  Classifica- 
tion," Psychol.  Monog.,  1911,  vol.  13   (no.  54),  pp.  34-40. 

'  Knox,  H.  A.  "A  Scale  Based  on  the  Work  at  Ellis  Island  for  Estimating 
Mental  Defect."  /.  of  the  Amcr.  Med.  Assoc.,  vol.  62,  1914,  p.  742.  Pintner,  R. 
and  Paterson,  D.  G.     "A  Scale  of  Performance  Tests,"  1917,  pp.  67-69. 

'Whipple,  G.  M.  "Manual  of  Mental  and  Physical  Tests,"  1915,  Part  II, 
pp.   17-42. 

■  Kent,  G.  H.  and  Rosanoff,  A.  J.  "A  Study  of  Association  in  Insanity." 
Amer.  J.  of  Insanity,  1910,  vol.  47,  pp.  37-96,  317-390. 

"  Woodworth,  R.  S.  and  Wells,  •  F.  L.  "Association  Tests."  Psychol. 
Monog.,  vol.  13,  whole  no.  57,  1911,  pp.  24-29,  32-41,  62-67.  ■ 

"  Norsworthy,  N.     "The   Psychology  of  the   ^Mentally  Deficient." 

"  Franz,  S.  I.    "Mental  E.xamination  Alethods,"  1912.  pp.  130-132. 

"  Trabue,  M.  R.  "Completion-Test  Language  Scales."  Teachers  College, 
Columbia  University,  Contributions  to  Education,  no.  77.    1916 

"Healy,  W.  "A  Pictorial  Completion  Test."  Psychol.  Rev.,  vol.  21,  1914, 
pp.  189-203. 

Pintner,  R.  and  Anderson,  M.  M.  "The  Picture  Completion  Test."  Educ. 
Psychol.  Monog.  No.  20. 

"0/>.  cit.,  pp.  14-17. 

"  Op.  cit.,  pp.  743-4. 


METHODS  OF  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION       45 

"""19.  Sequin    form-board  by  the   tactual   method. ^^ 

20.  Mirror  drawing  test.^^ 

21.  Hard  and  easy  directions  test.      ( Woodworth  and  Wells. )^^ 

22.  Woolley  ingenuity  test.-° 

•-23.  Test  of  mechanical  construction.      (Stenquist.)-^ 

24.  Test  of  selective  judgment.     (Bonser.)^^ 

25.  Steadiness  of  movement.-^ 

26.  Bogardus  factory  test.-* 

III.     Educational  Tests. 

A  series  of  educational  tests  were  given  with  a  view  to  determining 
the  extent  of  formal  education  the  subject  had  received  and  retained. 
These  were  given  by  Mary  A.  Clark  of  the  Laboratory  staff.  The 
women  came  to  the  Laboratory  after  the  period  of  quarantine  was  over 
and  were  tested  in  groups  of  from  three  to  eight,  the  aim  being  to 
avoid  having  women  of  very  varying  ability  in  the  same  group.  The 
tests  extended  generally  over  a  period  of  four  days.  The  tests  given 
were  as   follows: 

"^1.     Arithmetic. 

Courtis  Test  Series  A,  forms  1  and  3,  and  Series  B,  form  L^^ 

■^  2.     Spelling. 

A  combination  made  by  Thorndike  of  some  of  the  words  standard- 
ized by  Buckingham. ^^ 

"  See  Goddard,  H.  H.  "The  Form  Board  as  a  Measure  of  Intellectual  De- 
velopment in  Children."     Training  School,  1912,  vol.  9,  pp.   49-52. 

Sylvester,  R.  H.     "The  Form  Board  Test."     Psychol.  Monog.,  vol.  15,  no. 

65,  1913. 

^'Whipple,  o/>.  cit..  Part  II,  pp.  119-133. 

'"Op.  cit.,  pp.  68-72. 

^"Thompson,  H.  B.  "Psychological  Norms  in  Men  and  Women."  1903,  pp. 
110-113. 

"^  Stenquist,  J.  L.,  Thorndike,  E.  L.,  and  Trabue,  M.  R.  "The  Intellectual 
Status  of  Children  Who  Are  Public  Charges."  Arch,  of  Psychol.,  1915,  vol.  5, 
no.  ?>?>,  pp.  1-9. 

"^  Bonser,  F.  G.  "The  Reasoning  Ability  of  Children  of  the  Fourth,  Fifth 
and  Sixth  School  Grades."  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University,  Contribu- 
tions to  Education,  no.  ZJ,  1910,  pp.  5-6. 

''Whipple,  G.  M.  "Manual  of  Mental  and  Physical  Tests,"  1914,  Part  I, 
pp.  151-155. 

^*  Bogardus,  E.  S.  "The  Relation  of  Fatigue  to  Industrial  Accidents,"  Amer. 
J.  of  SocioL,  1911-12,  vol.  17,  pp.  1-69. 

■^Courtis,  S.  A.  "Manual  of  Instruction  for  Giving  and  Scoring  the  Courtis 
Standard  tests." 

*"  Buckingham,  B.  R.  "Spelling  Ability,  Its  Measurement  and  Distribution." 
Teachers  College,  Columbia  University,  Contributions  to  Education,  No.  59. 
1913. 


46      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINOUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

3.  Handwriting. 

A   passage  to  be   scored  by  Ijoth   the  Ayres  and  the  Thorndikc 

Scales. 2^ 

A  test  of  accurate  copying. 

An  original  letter. 

4.  Reading. 

Thorndike's  Scale  A  and  early  form  of  Scale  Alpha. ^^ 

5.  History. 

A  list  of  questions  compiled  by  Van  Wagenen  and  not  yet  published. 

6.  Geography. 

A  selection  from  a  series  of  questions  l)eing  standardized  l)y  the 
Boston  Public  Schools. 

7.  General    information. 

A  brief  set  of  questions  on  general  information,  compiled  by  us. 

8.  Practical  knowledge. 

Tests    of    ability    to    tell    time,    name    money   and    make    change, 
use  of  tape  measure,  etc. 

SELECTION   OF  TESTS  FOR  PRESENT  INVESTIGATION 

In  August  of  1916  it  was  decided  to  undertake  the  study  of  other 
penal  groups.  For  this,  so  extended  a  series  of  tests  was  impossible. 
After  careful  study  we  accordingly  reduced  our  series  to  those  in- 
cluded in  the  following  sections.  Our  criteria  for  this  reduction  were 
four : 

1.  Some    tests   we    had    found    of    more    intrinsic    value    than   others. 
Our  criteria  of  value  will  be  discussed  later. 

2.  Some  tests   were   retained  because   they   furnish   a   basis   for   com- 
parison with  the  work  of  others. 

3.  Some    tests    were    discarded    because    they    were    too    cumbersome 
to  be  easily  applied  outside  of  a  laboratory. 

4.  Some  tests  were  omitted  to  avoid  duplication. 

The  conditions  of  testing  in  the  other  institutions  were  less  ideal 
than  in  our  earlier  work,  but,  for  the  most  part,  reasonably  satisfactory. 
The  testing  of  the  Probation  Group  was  done  in  part  at  the  Florence 

"  Ayres,  L.  P.  'A  Scale  for  Measuring  the  Quality  of  Handwriting  of 
School  Children."     Russell  Sage  Foundation.  1912. 

Thorndike,  E.  L.  "Handwriting."  Teachers  College  Record,  1910,  vol.  11, 
No.  2. 

^  Thorndike,  E.  L.  "Reading  Scale  and  Visual  Vocabulary  Scale  A,"  and 
also  the  "Administration  Scale  \  for  Visual  Vocabulary."  Teachers  College 
Record,  September,  1914. 


METHODS  OF  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION       47 

Crittenton  Home  where  the  women  were  sometimes  held  pending  a 
decision  on  their  cases.  In  other  instances  they  came  to  the  city  office 
of  the  Laboratory. 

The  factor  which  caused  the  most  trouble  at  the  institutions  other 
than  Bedford  was  the  necessity  of  making  the  tests  after  the  women 
had  already  become  an  integral  part  of  the  prison  population.  The 
business  of  testing  was  something  then  which  was  suddenly  introduced 
into  their  program,  and  was  not  an  already  established  custom  to  which 
they  were  expected  to  conform.  Taking  as  we  did  the  commitments 
for  the  current  year  only,  it  left  a  goodly  remainder  of  old  inhabitants 
who  never  had  been  called  upon  to  be  tested,  and  these  often  formed  a 
background  of  scoffers  against  which  it  was  hard  to  contend.  On  the 
whole,  however,  we  fared  very  well  in  this  matter  of  recalcitration. 
One  girl  at  the  Magdalen  Home  refused  to  cooperate.  Three  of  the 
older  and  more  intelligent  women  at  Auburn  argued  cannily  that  the 
less  there  was  on  record  about  them  the  better  for  them,  and  several 
cases  of  old  rounders  at  the  Workhouse  declined  to  put  up  with  such 
"new-fangled  notions." 

The  matter  of"  one  inmate  being  coached  by  another  was  not  so 
serious  a  matter  as  we  feared  it  might  be.  The  really  intelligent 
women  who  might  be  the  most  effective  teachers  could  generally  be 
made  to  see  our  point  of  view  on  the  matter  of  communication,  and 
where  the  less  intelligent  attempted  instruction  it  was  often  a  case  of 
the  blind  leading  the  blind.  There  were  instances  where  we  felt  that 
the  subjects  had  been  tutored,  but  they  were  quite  as  likely  to  have  mis- 
understood their  instructions  as  to  have  profited  by  them,  so  that  the 
total  results  were  not  materially  affected.  The  testing  covered  gener- 
ally a  period  of  six  days,  of  about  an  hour  a  day. 

x\s  in  our  earlier  series,  the  instructions  after  being  carefully 
worked  over  were  reduced  to  writing  and  committed  to  memory.  The 
methods  of  scoring  were  worked  out  in  detail  and  each  examiner  was 
provided  with  a  copy  and  marked  the  tests  in  accordance  therewith. 
Where  ambiguous  answers  occurred  these  were  discussed  in  conference 
and  marked  on  the  basis  of  a  joint  decision.  In  every  case  the  tests 
after  being  marked  were  checked  by  another  examiner  to  catch  up  any 
errors. 

Yerkes-Bridges  Point  Scale  and  Stanford-Binet  Scale 

Both  the  Yerkes-Bridges  Point  Scale  and  the  Stanford-Binet  were 
included,  in  spite  of  their  similarity,  because  of  the  basis  of  comparison 


48       STUDY  OF  W0MP:N  DIXTNQUI^NTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

\vhich  these  scries  afford  witli  tlie  work  done  by  other  investigators. 
Onr  methods  for  giving  the  two  were  changed  from  the  original  meth- 
ods of  the  authors  in  question  at  the  following  points,  all  of  which 
are  minor  ones,  made  to  enable  us  to  score  the  test  for  both  series  with- 
out being  forced  to  repeat  ourselves. 

In  fourteen  of  the  tests  on  the  Point  Scale  there  is  duplication 
which  involves  seventeen  of  the  tests  on  the  Stanford-I'inet.  In  two 
of  these,  7'ic.,  the  defining  of  abstract  words,  and  detecting  absurdities, 
the  two  methods  overlap  in  part  and  it  is  only  necessary  to  ask  the 
additional  questions  in  order  to  score  the  test  for  both.  In  seven 
tests  tlie  variation  in  the  method  of  giving  seemed  to  us  so  slight  as 
to  be  immaterial.  These  tests  are  comprehension  of  questions  (easy 
and  difficult),  the  comparison  of  two  objects  from  memory,  sesthetic 
comparison,  comparison  of  two  lines,  sixty  words,  and  the  arranging 
of  weights.  In  the  tests  of  copying  a  square,  and  copying  a  diamond, 
the  change  in  difficulty  from  drawing  with  a  pencil  (Yerkes-Bridges) 
to  drawing  with  a  pen  as  required  in  the  Stanford-Binet  seemed  so 
great  that,  where  either  of  these  was  included  for  the  latter,  we  re- 
peated the  test,  using  pen  and  ink,  and  scored  it  on  that  showing. 

In  five  tests,  vie,  the  comparison  of  two  weights,  omissions  in  pic- 
tures, counting  backward,  definition  by  use,  and  dissected  sentences, 
we  used  the  Yerkes-Bridges  form.  In  drawing  the  design  from 
memory  we  penalized  the  Yerkes-Bridges  Scale  somewhat  in  that  we 
followed  the  Stanford  directions  of  giving  only  10"  exposure  instead 
of  15"  as  instructed  by  Yerkes. 

Tests  of  the  Woolley  Series 

^^'e  aimed  to  use  as  many  as  possible  of  the  tests  of  the  Woolley 
series  because  of  its  extensive  use  on  non-delinquent  groups  otherwise 
comparable  with  ours.  The  tests  of  steadiness  and  rapidity  of  move- 
ment, involving  as  they  do  even  a  small  amount  of  mechanical  appa- 
ratus, we  discarded  as  impractical,  because  it  was  necessary  under  the 
conditions  of  working  away  from  the  Laboratory  to  put  all  material 
oiit  of  the  way  after  each  day's  testing  and  the  labor  involved  in  con- 
stantly re-setting  was  too  time-consuming. 

Throughout  the  giving  of  these  tests  we  have  used  the  material 
specified  by  Dr.  Woolley-''  and  followed  carefully  the  instructions  de- 
vised by  her.  We  feel,  therefore,  that  our  findings  are  comparable 
with  hers.     The  tests  selected  are  as  follows : 

"  Op.  cit, 


METHODS  OF  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION       49 

1.  Sentence  completion  test.      (Series  beginning  "If  some  child".) 
Here  the  subject  is  required  to  complete  the  beginnings  of  thirteen 

sentences.  These  are  exposed  one  at  a  time  to  the  subject  who  writes 
an  ending  to  each  sentence.  The  test  is  scored  on  total  time,  individual 
reaction  time,  and  the  number  of  ideas  expressed.  Our  instructions 
for  giving  are  practically  the  same  as  those  given  by  Dr.  Woolley,  and 
our  method  of  scoring  follows  the  same  lines  as  hers  but  has  been 
made  a  little  more  specific. 

2.  Association  by  opposites.     (List  6,  beginning  "Inside".) 

The  responses  are  written  by  the  subject  and  the  test  is  scored 
l)oth  for  accuracy  and  for  total  time  of  the  performance. 

3.  Cancelation   of  a's.      (Form  beginning  "hplg".) 

Our  directions  for  giving  and  evaluating  are  but  little  modified 
from  Dr.  Woolley's. 

4.  Memory  for  digits,  by  the  visual-auditoiy-articulatory  method. 
The  numbers,  printed  in  heavy  type,  are  read  aloud  by  the  subject 

and  examiner  together.  Dr.  Woolley  used  two  series  each  of  7,  8,  and 
9  place  numbers.  We  have  added  pairs  of  10,  11,  12  and  6,  5,  4,  and  3 
place  numbers  wdiere  it  was  necessai"}^  to  go  in  either  direction  in  order 
to  ascertain  the  memory  span.  We  have  used  her  method  in  giving 
and  scoring  this  test. 

5.  Substitution  or  symbol  digit  test. 

A  series  of  nine  geometrical  figures  are  to  be  associated  respectively 
wath  the  nine  digits.  After  the  association  has  been  established  by 
means  of  three  practice  pages  it  is  reproduced  from  memory  on  a 
fourth  page.  Time  and  accuracy  are  both  scored  here.  Our  directions 
for  giving  are  practically  identical  with  those  of  Dr.  Woolley. 

6.  Card  sorting  test. 

The  Jastrow  card  sorting  box  with  the  colored  cards  described  by 
Dr.  Woolley  was  used.  Our  instructions  for  giving  were  essentially 
similar  to  hers  but  we  varied  her  procedure  in  that  we  gave  three  trials. 
We  found  the  best  time  of  the  three  to  be  the  most  satisfactory  meas- 
ure. 

Additional  Tests 

1.     Action-agent  association.. 

The  list  we  used  is  selected  from  the  two  lists  used  in  our  earlier 
series.  One  of  these  was  taken  directly  from  the  Woodworth  and 
Wells  monograph  and  the  other  we  compiled  ourselves.  We  print 
beIow~tEe~selected  list: 


50       STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

1.  gallops  11.  scratches 

2.  bites  12.  flies 

3.  cuts  13.  ticks 

4.  rings  14.  creeps 

5.  explodes  15.  blows 

6.  stings  16.  evaporates 

7.  crows  17.  rolls 

8.  aches  18.  burns 

9.  growls  19.  pricks 
.  10.  cries  20.  roars 

The  responses  were  given  orally  and  the  reaction  time  of  each  taken 
with  a  stop  watch.  The  degree  of  accuracy  was  credited  in  whole  and 
half  credits. 

2.     Mixed  relations  association. 

Here  again  we  made  a  selection  of  twenty  words  from  two  lists 
used  in  our  earlier  work.  Both  of  these  are  given  by  Woodworth  and 
Wells  in  the  paper  just  cited.  We  print  below  the  composite  form 
used : 


1.  Eye — see 

Ear — 

2.  Monday — Tuesday 

April — 

3.  Do— did 

See — 

4.  Bird — sings 

Dog- 

5.  Straw — hat 

Leather — 

6.  Hammer — tool 

Dictionary- 

7.  Dog— puppy 

Cat- 

8.  House — room 

Book- 

9.  Sky— blue 

Grass — 

10.  Swim — water 

Fly— 

11.  Once — one 

Tv/ice — 

12.  Cat— fur 

Bird- 

13.  Pan— tin 

Table— 

14.  Good — bad 

Long- 

15.  Fruit — orange 

Vegetable — 

16.  Sit — chair 

Sleeps 

17.  Pen — write 

Knife- 

18.  Nose — face 

Toe- 

19.  Hungry — food 

Ihirsty — 

20.  Man — woman 

Boy— 

Our  instructions  for  giving  were  but  slightly  modified  from  the  direc- 
tions of  these  authors.  The  accuracy  here  also  was  credited  in  whole 
and  half  credits. 

3.  Cancelation  of  unfamiliar  figures. 

One  of  the  sets  of  unfamiliar  figures  described  by  Franz  was  used. 
This  consists  of  eight  uncommon  but  generally  similar  figures,  each 
repeated  twenty-five  times  in  haphazard  arrangement.  We  are  in- 
debted to  Dr.  Franz  for  the  use  of  his  plates.  Time  and  accuracy 
were  both  recorded. 

4.  Directions  test. 

We  used  the  form  of  hard  directions  devised  by  Woodworth  and 


METHODS  OF  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION        51 

Wells  and  their  form  of  easy  directions  which  begins :  "Cross  out  the 
smallest  dot."  Time  was  recorded  and  the  accuracy  marked  on  a  score 
of  twenty  credits.  J<^ 

5.  Knox's  cubes.  a/i     ^/i< 

Our  material  is  comparable  with  Pintner's  rather  than  with  Knox's, 
in  that  the  blocks  were  uniform  in  color  instead  of  being  varied,  and  the 
series  devised  by  Pintner  and  Anderson  was  used.  The  measure 
used  in  this  study  is  the  number  of  lines  reproduced  without  error. 

6.  Rossolimo  dissected  pictures.^" 

This  test  is  taken  directly  from  Rossolimo's  profile  method  and 
represents  one  of  the  tests  of  what  he  designates  "capacity  to  com- 
bine." It  consists  of  ten  pictures,  five  in  colors  of  familiar  objects, 
and  five  of  conventional  designs  in  black  on  a  white  ground.  They 
increase  progressively  in  difficulty,  depending,  Rossolimo  says,  "on  the 
increasing  complexity  of  the  pictures  and  the  increasing  complexity 
of  the  dissection,"  The  pictures  in  order  of  increasing  difficulty  are 
presented  one  at  a  time  with  the  direction:  "See  if  you  can  put  these 
pieces  together  to  make  a  picture."  The  time  for  a  successful  com- 
pletion is  recorded.     The  time  limit  for  each  is  three  minutes. 

7.  Pictorial  completion.      (Healy.) 

The  blocks  were  always  presented  in  a  haphazard  but  definitely 
specified  order.  Our  directions  are  varied  from  those  given  by  Healy 
and  by  Pintner  and  Anderson  chiefly  by  the  addition  of  this  definite 
arrangement  of  blocks.  We  have  used  the  system  of  evaluation  de- 
vised by  Pintner  and  Anderson. 

8.  Trabue  completion  test.     Scale  A. 

This  test  was  given  and  scored  in  accordance  with  Trabue's  direc- 
tions. 

9.  Woody  arithmetic  test. 

Form  B  of  the  Woody  series ^^  and  all  of  the  four  fundamental 
operations  were  given.  They  were  scored  according  to  Woody's  di- 
rections. 

10.  Courtis  arithmetic  test. 

Form  B  of  the  Courtis  Series  was  used.  It  was  given  and  scored 
in  exact  accordance  with  Courtis'  instructions.     Since  it  had  appeared 

'"Rossolimo,  G.  "Die  Psychologische  Profile  zur  ^lethodik  cler  quantitativen 
UntersUchung  der  psychische  Vorgiinge  in  normale  unci  pathologische  Fallen." 
Kliiiik  d.  psych,  u.  nerv.  Kraiikh.,  1911,  vol.  6.  We  are  indebted  to  Dr. 
Whipple  for  the  loan  of  his  materials,  from  which  we  had  copies  made. 

''  Woody,  C.  "Measurement  of  Some  Achievements  in  Arithmetic."  Teach- 
ers College,  Columbia  University,  Contributions  to  Education,  No.  80,  1916. 


52      STUDY  OF  WOMl-LN  DI-XINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

from  our  earlier  use  of  the  scale  that  (he  achhtion  and  the  division  tests 
were  a  fair  index  of  one's  capacity  in  all  four  processes,  only  these 
two  were  used  in  the  present  investigation. 

11.  Reading. 

We  used  Thorndike's  two  reading  scales,  A  and  Alpha,  em- 
ploying his  directions  for  giving  and  scoring. 

12.  Spelling. 

For  this  test  a  list  of  sentences  suggested  by  Dr.  Thorndike  was 
used.  They  contain  twenty-seven  of  the  words  standardized  by  Buck- 
ingham for  children  ranging  from  third  to  super-eighth  grade.  Each 
w^ord  misspelled,  omitted  or  illegible  was  counted  as  an  error. 

Tests  8,  9,  10,  11  and  12  were  given  as  group  tests  when  practic- 
able, the  number  in  the  group  varying  from  two  to  ten. 

13.  Handwriting. 

This  was  meant  to  test  both  the  speed  and  the  quality  of  writing. 
It  was  possible  to  grade  the  copy  by  both  the  Thorndike  and  the  Ayres 
scales.  The  speed  was  measured  in  terms  of  the  number  of  letters 
per  minute.  The  subject  was  instructed  to  write  repeatedly  the  words 
one,  tico,  three,  up  to  ten  over  a  period  of  one  minute  about  as  fast  as 
he  ordinarily  wTOte  in  writing  a  letter.  He  was  first  allowed  to  prac- 
tise on  a  sample  sheet  to  make  sure  he  understood  what  was  expected 
of  him. 

14.  Practical  information. 

A  series  of  tests  of  practical  information  was  devised  which  con- 
sists of  the  following  simple  operations :  naming  money ;  making 
change,  telling  time;  counting  the  value  of  stamps;  repeating  days  of 
the  week  and  months  of  the  year;  and  measuring  feet  and  inches  with 
a  tape  measure. 

USE  OF  PEARSON  SCALE  FOR  JUDGING   MENTAL  ABILITY  AS  CRITERION   OF 
RELIABILITY    OF   TESTS    USED 

As  a  criterion  for  measuring  the  reliability  of  a  test  we  have  made 
use  of  the  judgment  scale  devised  by  Pearson. -'^  His  method  of  obtain- 
ing this  scale  may  be  briefly  described  as  follows :  He  assumed  the 
hypothesis  that  grades  of  intelligence  for  the  general  population  dis- 
tribute their  frequencies  in  the  form  of  the  normal  probability  curve. 
He  constructed  a  descriptive  scale  of  intellectual  levels,  on  the  basis  of 
which  he  secured   judgments   from  the  instructors  of  approximately 

'^  Pearson,  Karl.  "On  the  Relationship  of  Intelligence  to  Size  and  Shape  of 
Head,  and  to  Other  Physical  and  Mental  Characters."    Biomctrika,  vol.  5,  p.  105. 


METHODS  OF  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION        53 

1000  Cambridge  students  and  5000  unselected  English  school  children. 
By  this  means  he  obtained  the  frequencies  for  each  class  and  so  deter- 
mined the  numerical  equivalents  for  each  interval  on  the  scale.  He 
was  thus  able  to  assign  quantitative  values  to  different  intellectual 
classes  obtained  by  judgmental  methods,  which  made  possible  quanti- 
tative comparisons  with  other  measurable  factors.  The  form  of  the 
scale  as  we  used  it  is  as  follows : 

Class  M.  Especially  able.  A  mind  especially  bright  and  quick,  both 
in  perception  and  in  reasoning,  not  only  about  customary  but  about 
novel  facts ;  able  and  accustomed  to  reason  rightly  about  things  on 
purely  self-initiative. 

Class  N.  Capable.  A  mind  less  likely  than  M  to  originate  inquiry, 
but  quick  in  perception  and  reasoning  about  the  perceived. 

Class  O.  Fair  intelligence.  A  mind  ready  to  grasp  and  capable  of 
perceiving  facts  in  most  fields;  capable  of  good  reasoning  with  moderate 
effort.    This  group  comprises,  say,  one-third  of  the  population  at  large. 

Class  P.  Slow  intelligence.  A  mind  slow  generally,  although  possibly 
more  rapid  in  certain  fields,  but  quite  sure  of  knowledge  once  acquired. 

Class  Q.  Slow.  A  mind  advancing  in  general  but  very  slowly;  with 
time  and  considerable  effort  not  incapable  of  progress.  Very  slow  in 
thought  generally,  but  with  time  understanding  is  reached. 

Class  R.  Slow,  dull.  A  mind  capable  of  perceiving  relationships 
between  facts  in  some  few  fields  with  long  and  continuous  effort  but  not 
generally  or  without  external  assistance. 

Class  S.  Very  dull.  A  mind  capable  of  holding  only  the  simplest 
facts  and  incapable  of  reasoning  or  grasping  the  relationship  between 
facts. 

Class  X.  Judge  a  girl  to  be  in  Class  X  if  you  are  not  familiar 
enough  with  her  ability  to  justify  an  estimation  of  her  intelligence. 

Class  Y.  Judge  a  girl  to  be  in  Class  Y  if  you  feel  that  you  are 
prejudiced  in  favor  of  or  against  the  girl,  and  are  for  that  reason  incapable 
of  judging  her  mental  ability  fairly. 

We  ourselves  added  Classes  X  and  Y  to  the  scale,  not  because  we 
intend  to  make  statistical  use  of  them  but  because  we  felt  they  would 
relieve  the  judges  from  being  forced  into  making  a  judgment  where 
they  felt  incapable  of  doing  so.  We  have  also  adopted  Ruml's^^ 
device  of  allowing  the  judges  to  add  a  plus  or  a  minus  sign  to  their  de- 
cision, indicating  that  they  consider  a  subject  to  belong  in  a  given 
class  but  inclining  toward  a  higher  or  lower  interval. 

^'  Ruml,  Beardsley.  "The  Reliability  of  Mental  Tests  in  the  Division  of  an 
Academic  Group."     Psychol.  Monog.  vol.  24,  no.  4,  1917. 


54      STUDY  OF  W0MI<:N  DICLTNQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

The  numerical  equivalents,   which   Pearson  calls  "mentaces,"   for 
each  class  are  given  helow  : 


M  + 

471  mentaces 

O 

322  mentaces 

Q- 

177  mentaces 

M 

451 

O  — 

302 

R  + 

157 

M  — 

416 

P  + 

282 

R 

130 

N  + 

391 

P 

262 

R  — 

116 

N 

371 

P  — 

242 

S  + 

96 

N  — 

353 

Q  + 

220 

s 

62 

0  + 

2,2,7 

Q 

192 

We  wish  now  to  say  something  of  the  qualifications  of  the  persons 
who  made  these  judgments  for  us  and  to  express  our  grateful  appre- 
ciation of  their  service.  Our  method  has  been  to  use  only  those  cases 
where  we  have  been  able  to  secure  judgments  from  three  observers. 
We  have  then  taken  the  numerical  equivalents  of  these  and  used  their 
average  as  a  measure  to  correlate  with  each  test  or  series  of  tests. 

At  Bedford,  which  has  served  as  the  basis  for  most  of  this  part 
of  our  work,  the  judgments  were  made  by  persons  who  had  unusually 
good  opportunity  to  size  up  the  individuals  under  consideration.  Miss 
Ida  Murphy  was  superintendent  of  the  school  and  had  direction  also 
of  the  assigning  of  the  women  to  the  various  forms  of  employment 
in  the  institution.  In  this  way  she  came  to  study  very  carefully  the 
ability  of  each.  Mrs.  Louise  Engle,  the  matron  of  the  Reception  Cot- 
tage where  the  women  remained  for  a  period  of  at  least  two  months 
after  their  arrival,  was  in  direct  contact  with  them  during  this  period 
and  thus  had  ample  opportunity  to  form  an  adequate  opinion.  Miss 
Dawley,  the  sociologist  of  the  Laboratory,  was  the  third  of  the  main  ob- 
servers and  she  from  her  intensive  study  of  each  woman  had  occasion 
constantly  to  make  such  judgments.  In  the  great  majority  of  cases 
it  is  the  average  of  these  three  judgments  that  we  have  used.  To 
supplement  these  for  certain  groups  we  secured  judgments  from  Miss 
Eleanor  Miller,  who  had  direction  of  all  the  agricultural  work  and 
supervision  of  the  "Farm  Group,"  from  Miss  Winspere  and  Miss 
Decker,  two  of  the  teachers  in  the  institution,  and  from  Mrs.  Hoffman, 
who  was  in  charge  of  the  work  m  the  laundry. 

Our  confidence  in  the  reliability  of  this  group  of  judges  is  such 
that  we  do  not  feel  that  the  value  of  their  estimates  is  seriously  affected 
by  the  fact  that  they  had  some  knowledge  of  the  test  results.  That  they 
should  have  this  knowledge  was  unavoidable  since  each  commitment 
was  discussed  at  a  staff  meeting  within  a  month  or  so  of  her  arrival. 
It  was  impossible  to  secure  judgments  upon  her  prior  to  this  discussion 
since  she  was  not  yet  known  by  most  of  the  persons  mentioned  above. 


METHODS  OF  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION        55 

The  influence  of  this  previous  knowledge  was  lessened  by  the  fact  that 
several  months  had  elapsed  between  the  staff  meeting  and  the  time 
that  judgment  was  made,  and  that  results  of  the  tests  were  not  actually 
before  the  judges  as  they  made  their  estimates. 

At  Auburn  the  judgments  were  made  by  Dr.  Frank  Heacox, 
the  prison  physician;  by  Mrs.  Margaret  E.  Daly,  the  superintendent  of 
the  women's  prison ;  by  her  assistant,  Miss  Curtis ;  and  by  Mrs.  Helen 
P.  Stone,  the  school-teacher  of  the  women.  Except  in  occasional  in- 
stances they  had  no  knowledge  of  the  outcome  of  the  tests.  We  regret 
that  the  smallness  of  the  group  prevented  our  making  any  extended 
use  of  these  figures. 

At  the  Magdalen  Home  we  were  so  fortunate  as  to  obtain  judg- 
ments from  Miss  Janet  Macconachie,  the  superintendent :  from  Mrs. 
Mary  E.  Paddon.  the  executive  secretary;  from  Mrs.  Nellie  R.  Crane, 
the  school-teacher ;  and  from  the  field  worker,  Miss  Esther  Cook.  Like 
the  Auburn  judgments,  these  were  made  without  knowledge  of  the  test 
results,  but  were  less  serviceable  than  the  Bedford  data  because  of  the 
smallness  of  the  group  on  which  we  were  actually  able  to  secure  three 
judgments. 

On  the  other  groups  we  have  been  unable  to  obtain  enough  reliable 
judgments  to  make  a  satisfactory  average.  In  the  Workhouse,  many 
cases  are  not  even  known  by  sight  except  by  the  matron  having  direct 
charge  of  them.  Combining  of  results  from  the  three  institutions  to 
obtain  larger  numbers  proved  not  to  be  feasible  since  there  was  an  evi- 
dent tendency  to  use  different  standards  of  reference  in  the  different 
institutions.  In  other  words,  the  factor  discussed  on  page  38  as 
limiting  the  application  of  the  method  of  estimates  from  one  group 
to  another  appeared  here  as  a  limitation  on  our  comparisons. 

SELECTION    OF    TESTS    FOR    SPECIAL    CONSIDERATION    IN    PRESENT    STUDY 

With  this  scale  as  a  criterion,  we  have  selected  from  our  data  for 
use  in  the  present  study  a  group  of  tests  which,  taken  singly,  give  a" 
reasonably  high  correlation,,  as  determined  for  the  Bedford  group,  and 
which,  thrown  into  combination,  give  a  still  higher  correlation.  This 
scheme  is  admittedly  less  satisfactory  than  the  method  of  eliminating 
tests  by  multiple  correlation,  but  in  view  of  the  small  number  of  cases 
on  which  w'e  were  able  to  secure  three  reliable  judgments  we  have  felt 
that  we  have  refined  our  method  as  far  as  our  data  w^arranted.  We 
cannot  say  with  certainty  that,  of  the  tests  which  we  have  given,  we 
have  selected  that  combination  which  would  give  the  highest  possible 


56      STl'DY  OI-  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

correlation  with  our  criterion,  but  we  con  say  that  by  this  method  we 
have  been  able  to  select  a  group  of  tests  which  give  a  correlation  with 
the  judgments  of  competent  observers  sufficiently  high  to  make  it  cer- 
tain that  they  furnish  a  reliable  measure  of  intellectual  capacity. 

It  is  not  possible  within  the  limits  of  this  book  to  describe  in  detail 
the  results  of  the  correlation  of  all  of  our  individual  tests  with  the 
judgmental  scale.  We  hope  at  an  early  date  to  publish  these  data 
in  one  of  the  psychological  periodicals,  but  for  the  present  can  only 
state  the  principle  on  which  the  tests  were  chosen  and  from  there  on 
restrict  our  discussion  to  these  tests.  We  should  state,  however,  that 
we  have  no  intention  of  implying  that  the  tests  not  included  were  found 
unsatisfactory.  Their  range  of  efficiency  as  measured  by  the  judg- 
ment scale  runs  from  zero  to  sixty  odd.  Some  of  them  would  thus 
seem  to  be 'quite  useless  as  measures  of  intelligence  and  others  might 
prove  to  be  as  useful  as  those  we  have  chosen  or  even  more  so. 

Considering  first  the  correlations  between  the  judgment  scale  and 
the  two  measures  of  the  Binet  type — the  Yerkes-Bridges  Point  Scale 
and  the  Stanford  Revision — we  find  the  coefficients  to  be,  in  the  case 
of  the  Bedford  group,  .78zt.042  and  .81rb.037  respectively — figures 
sufficiently  large  to  make  our  data  another  proof  that  these  series  fur- 
nish reliable  measures  of  intellectual  capacity. 

From  our  data  we  next  assembled  the  four  individual  tests  from 
the  psychological  series  whose  correlation  with  the  judgment  scale  was 
highest  and  combined  these  into  a  group  to  serve  as  another  measure  of 
intellectual  capacity.  These  are :  ( 1 )  accuracy  of  response  in  the- 
opposites  test,  (2)  accuracy  of  response  in  the  mixed  relations  test,  (3) 
the  vocabulary  score  (Stanford-Binet),  and  (4)  the  score  on  Trabue's 
completion  test.  The  coefficients  of  correlation  of  these  with  the  judg- 
ment scale,  for  the  Bedford  group,  are  respectively: 

0pp.  Ace.  Mixed  Rel.  Ace.  Vocab.  Score  Trabue  Com.  Score 
Judgments  .65  .69  .71  .69 

The  scores  on  these  tests  were  combined  by  the  method,  suggested 
by  Woodworth,  of  expressing  each  individual  score  as  a  deviation  from 
the  mean  of  the  group  as  a  whole  and  in  terms  of  the  standard  devia- 
tion as  a  unit.     (- ]    In  this  way  one  is  able  to  combine  measures 

regardless  of  whether  they  are  expressed  in  terms  of  time,  errors  or 
any  other  form  of  measurement  which  may  have  been  employed.     We 

added  these  individual  standings,  (- ),  unweighted,  and  ^hus  obtained  a 


METHODS  OF  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION        57 

standing  on  the  group  of  tests.  The  series  of  these  combined  standings 
gives  a  correlation  of  .81  with  the  judgment  scale.  We  have  accordingly 
regarded  this  group  of  tests  also  as  a  reliable  measure  of  intellectual 
capacity. 

In  this  combination  we  have  consciously  selected  a  group  of  tests 
where  the  language  factor  is  especially  starred,  designating  the  series 
as  the  language  group.-A  Our  justification  for  such  a  selection  lies  in 
their  high  correlation  with  the  judgment  scale.  If,  as  seems  not  im- 
probable, an  individual's  capacity  to  handle  language  is  one  of  the  im- 
portant determinants  of  the  judgment  which  is  made  on  his  intellectual 
capacity,  then  there  would  seem  to  be  no  impropriety  in  using  such 
tests  as  a  measure. 

In  an  efifort  to  counteract  this  emphasis  on  the  language  factor, 
we  endeavored  to  evolve  a  series  of  performance  tests,  recognizing 
the  importance  of  such  tests  where  one  is  dealing  with  tliose  whose 
knowledge  of  English  is  limited  or  whose  emotional  characteristics 
are  such  as  to  hamper  them  in  an  effort  to  express  th;mselves  verbally 
under  conditions  of  examination.  With  a  view  to  compiling  such  a 
series  we  picked  from  our  data  four  tests  where  the  factor  of  language 
is  emphasized  as  little  as  possible  and  whose  correlations  with  judg- 
ments are  among  the  highest  of  such  non-language  tests.  These  are : 
(1)  card  sorting  (Woolley),  (2)  memory  for  digits  (Woolley,  A.  V.  A. 
method),  (3)  Knox  cubes,  (4)  cancellation  of  unfamiliar  figures 
(Franz).  Specifically,  we  used  as  a  measure  for  the  card  sorting  the 
time  of  the  best  of  three  trials ;  for  the  memory  for  digits  the  sum  of 
the  averages  of  the  pairs  of  seven,  eight  and  nine  place  numbers ;  for 
the  Knox  cubes  the  number  of  lines  of  the  Pintner  series  correctly 
repeated ;  and  for  the  cancellation  of  unfamiliar  figures  we  used  one- 
half  of  the  sum  of  the  standings  of  time  and  errors;  that  is  to  say, 
we  obtained  standings  for  time  and  for  errors,  added  them,  and,  to 
avoid  weighting  this  test  too  heavily  in  relation  to  the  others,  divided  the 
sum  by  two. 

W^e  thus  have  four  tests  represented  unweighted,  although  one  of 
these  is  made  up  of  two  measures.  We  combined  these  four  tests  in 
the  same  way  in  which  we  combined  the  language  group — by  a  simple 
sum  of  their  standings. 

The  coefficients  of  correlation  of  each  individual  test  with  the  judg- 
ment scale  are  respectively : 

Card  sorting     AVA  digits     Knox  cubes     Cancel,  time     Cancel,  score 
Judgments  .67  .61  .54  ,40  .32 


58      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

By  combining  them  into  a  group  the  correlation  was  found  to  be  !n±. 
.053,  a  coefficient  sufficiently  large  to  indicate  that  we  have  here 
also  a  useful  measure  of  intellectual  capacity. 

We  have,  now,  four  series  which  would  seem  to  be  reliable  meas- 
ures of  intellectual  ability  in  that  they  show  high  correlation  with  intel- 
ligence as  estimated  in  terms  of  the  Pearson  scale  by  the  judgments  of 
three  competent  observers — the  coefficients  ranging  from  .77  to  .81, 
with  standard  deviations  in  no  case  large  enough  to  cast  doubt  on  their 
significance.  We  figure  below  the  table  of  inter-correlations  of  these 
four  with  each  other  and  witli  the  judgments, 

INTER-CORRELATION  OF  TESTS 


Yerkes  Stanford- 

Language 

Performance     J 

Cudgmi 

Points       Binet 

Tests 

Tests 

Yerkes  Points   .... 

—             .87 

.88 

.63 

.78 

Stanford-Binet    ... 

— 

.89 

.66 

.81 

Language  Tests  . . 

— 

.68 

.81 

Performance  Tests 

— 

.n 

Judgments  

— 

As  measures  of  mentality  available  for  purposes  of  comparison 
with  the  work  done  by  others,  we  have  used  chiefly  the  figures  on  the 
results  obtained  by  the  Yerkes  and  the  Stanford  scales.  For  purposes 
*  of  inter-comparison  on  our  own  data,  we  combined  the  results  on 
the  several  series  just  described  into  a  single  measure  which  we 
called  "Test  Aggregate.''  We  obtained  this  by  taking  the  average 
of  all  four  standings,  where  all  of  the  series  were  given,  and  of 
three  where  only  three  were  available.  For  this  we  have  used  no 
records  where  the  subject  had  not  taken  at  least  three  of  the  test 
groups.  This  measure  was  correlated  with  the  judgment  scale  and 
found  to  give  a  coefficient  of  .86.  The  inter-correlations  of  this 
measure  with  the  others  which  are  integral  parts  of  the  combination 
are  as  follows : 


Yerkes 

Stanford- 

Language 

Performance 

Point 

Binet 

Group 

Group 

.93 

.94 

.95 

.82 

Test  Aggregate   . . 

This,  then,  is  the  measure  which  we  shall  figure  for  the  most  part  as 
our  means  of  comparison  of  one  group  of  our  subjects  with  another, 
whether  the  grouping  be  by  institutions,  by  color,  by  crime  committed 
or  any  other  mode  of  separation.  This  series  which  we  have  called  Test 
Aggregate,  can,  of  course,  only  be  used  fairly  with  subjects  who  can 
understand  spoken  English.  In  order  to  call  a  case  "English-speak- 
ing" in  this  work,  we  have  arbitrarily  ruled  to  limit  the  term  to  those 


METHODS  OF  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION       59 

born  in  this  or  any  other  English-speaking  country  or  who  have  had  at 
least  two  years'  schooling  in  this  country.  This  ruling  we  felt,  from 
our  personal  knowledge  of  the  subjects,  served  effectively  to  eliminate 
all  those  with  serious  language  difficulty.^*  English-speaking  illiter- 
ates were  not  eliminated.  Only  one  of  the  four  groups  of  test  is  appre- 
ciably affected  by  inability  to  read  and  write.  An  illiterate  could  there- 
fore make  his  Test  Aggregate  score  on  the  other  three  scales. 

For  those  comparisons  where  we  have  sought  to  include  the  non- 
English-speaking  women  as  well,  we  have  used,  the  records  of  our 
group  of  performance  tests  as  a  measure  of  mental  capacity.  The 
great  majority  of  our  comparisons  have,  however,  been  made  with 
Test  Aggregate,  which  means  that  we  have  been  forced  to  omit  from 
such  comparisons  the  non-English-speaking  women.  We  recognized 
that  this  limits  the  completeness  of  our  comparisons,  but  purposely 
chose  this  horn  of  the  dilemma  since  Test  Aggregate  appears  to  give 
a  more  satisfactory  measure  of  intelligence  than  does  our  Performance 
(]roup.  We  should  be  penalizing  the  whole  in  our  efforts  to  include 
a  few,  if  we  had  carried  through  our  comparisons  on  the  basis  of  the 
Performance  Group. 

'■*  In  order  to  determine  whether  we  had  lowered  the  standing  of  our  group 
by  including,  even  where  language  tests  were  used,  some  individuals  for  whom 
English  was  an  acquired  tongue,  we  compared  the  total  which  we  have  called 
■'English-speaking"  with  a  group  selected  on  a  much  more  conservative  basis, 
namely,  individuals  who  were  born  in  English-speaking  countries  themselves, 
as  were  both  of  their  parents.  There  was  no  appreciable  difference  between 
the  two  groups  as  measured  by  Test  Aggregate,  but  strangely  enough,  what 
shade  of  advantage  there  was  was  in  favor  of  the  former. 


CHAPTER  V 
METHODS  OF  SOCIAL  INVESTIGATION 

IN  discussing  the  method  of  social  investigation  of  the  six  groups 
of  delinquent  women  with  which  we  are  dealing,  it  is  important  at 
the  outset  to  bear  in  mind  that  these  women  have  committed  offenses 
against  the  law  and  that  with  the  exception  of  one  group  they  were 
confined  in  institutions  for  varying  lengths  of  time.  Three  hundred 
and  twenty-eight  women  or  54.6  per  cent  of  the  587  cases  studied  have 
had  at  least  one  previous  conviction.  Many  of  the  women,  especially 
the  sex  offenders,  have  been  violators  of  the  law  many  times  when 
they  were  not  arrested.  This  means  that  the  majority  of  them  have 
important  episodes  in  their  lives  which  it  is  to  their  advantage  not  to 
talk  about  to  an  investigator.  The  effort  to  keep  back  information 
concerning  a  previous  delinquency  often  tends  to  make  a  suspicious 
woman  untruthful  about  other  events  in  her  life  which,  however,  may 
have  no  bearing  on  the  thing  she  is  trying  to  conceal. 

Our  case  studies,  therefore,  differ  to  quite  an  extent  in  the  method 
of  approach  and  investigation  from  the  case  histories  which  most 
social  organizations  are  able  to  make.  !Miss  Mary  Richmond's  book 
on  "Social  Diagnosis,"  which  is  most  comprehensive  in  outlining  a 
plan  for  case  workers,  presupposes  that  "case  work  .  .  .  has  for  its 
immediate  aim  the  betterment  of  individuals  or  families,  one  by  one, 
as  distinguished  from  their  betterment  in  the  mass."  ^  The  initiative 
is  taken,  in  many  of  these  cases,  by  the  individual  or  family  who  needs 
help.  The  women  in  this  study,  on  the  contrary,  were  questioned  en- 
tirely without  request  on  their  part,  and  with  the  exception  of  the 
probation  group,  they  could  hope  to  gain  very  little  by  talking  freely 
and  frankly.  To  establish  a  friendly  relationship  and  make  it  agreeable 
for  these  women  to  give  the  information  necessary  to  conduct  an  in- 
vestigation was  one  of  our  most  difficult  and  time-consuming  problems. 

*  Richmond,   Mary   E.     "Social   Diagnosis."     Russell    Sage   Foundation,   New 
York,  1917,  page  25. 

6o 


METHODS  OF  SOCIAL  INVESTIGATION  61 

GENERAL  PLAN   OF  STUDY 

In  general,  the  form  of  social  investigation  used  was  intensive,  with 
an  attempt  to  understand  the  individual  thoroughly,  not  only  through 
obtaining  her  own  reactions,  but  by  complete  investigation  of  all 
outside  sources  which  could  help  in  making  such  an  understanding 
possible.  A  study  of  our  results  and  comparison  of  the  woman's  story 
alone  with  the  full  investigation  would  indicate  that  the  facts  are 
obscured  by  using  either  plan  exclusively,  and  that  the  intensive  method 
is  essential  in  gaining  a  true  insight  into  the  individual  and  the  factors 
related  to  her  delinquency.  This  work  differs,  therefore,  from  most 
extensive  studies  of  delinquency  in  that  the  subject's  statement  has 
been  corrected  and  added  to  by  as  thorough  an  investigation  as  was 
possible. 

The  main  trend  of  our  sociological  study  was  to  obtain  from  each 
woman  delinquent  studied  an  oral  statement  giving  the  details  of  her 
personal  history  and  her  background,  such  as  heredity  and  early  en- 
vironmental influences.  From  her  initial  statement  a  first-hand  study 
of  these  factors  was  made,  by  visits  to  and  correspondence  with  the 
various  individuals  or  organizations  which  had  come  into  contact  with 
her  at  any  time.  In  all  of  the  groups  information  given  by  the  subject 
was  recorded  separately  from  the  verified  data  about  her,  in  order  that 
the  two  kinds  of  material  might  be  used  for  comparison  and  to  deter- 
mine whether  there  was  any  consistent  tendency  on  the  part  of  the 
women  studied  to  misrepresent  or  fail  to  give  information  concerning 
any  important  factors  in  their  lives. 

To  accomplish  this  work  there  were  six  trained  investigators,  with 
occasional  help  from  one  other  person.  The  general  plan  was  followed 
of  having  the  same  worker  take  the  bulk  of  the  cases  in  one  group. 
Such  a  plan  is  time  saving  and  also  is  necessary  in  making  the  worker 
known  among  the  inmates  of  an  institution,  and  in  having  the  inves- 
tigation appear  to  be  more  nearly  a  routine  of  the  institution.  In  each 
group,  however,  a  number  of  the  cases  were  worked  on  by  individuals 
other  than  the  one  who  was  doing  the  main  part  of  the  work  in  that 
place.  This  was  necessary  at  times  when  the  work  with  one  group 
would  become  particularly  heavy.  Such  an  arrangement  was  also  felt 
to  be  of  benefit  in  determining,  by  a  liberal  sampling  of  cases  inves- 
tigated by  other  workers,  whether  there  was  any  personal  bias  enter- 
ing into  the  work  of  the  one  who  was  mainly  interested  in  any  one 
institrition. 


62      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DI'LINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

Tn  order  to  eliminate  tlie  personal  equation  as  much  as  possible 
and  Iia\-e  the  work  on  all  of  the  groups  comparable,  a  uniform  set  of 
record  blanks  and  the  same  general  scheme  of  recording  material  was 
used  by  each  worker.  A  particular  effort  was  made  to  keep  distinct 
and  separate  information  obtained  concerning  the  subject,  and  the 
worker's  impression  of  the  informant.  Both  of  these  are  necessary 
information,  but  if  carefully  recorded  as  separate  items,  may  be  used 
in  a  much  more  uniform  scheme  by  one  or  two  persons,  who  may 
weigh  the  reliability  of  the  information  for  all  groups  alike. 

THE    INITIAL    INTERVIEW 

Probably  the  most  important  part  of  any  such  investigation  as  this 
is  the  initial  interview  with  the  subject.  There  are  two  main  reasons 
for  the  need  of  obtaining  accurate  information  at  this  interview. 
The  first  and  most  important  perhaps,  because  it  applies  to  a  larger 
number  of  cases  is,  that  by  obtaining  reliable  information  to  start 
with,  the  work  of  the  investigator  will  be  considerably  lessened,  and 
the  final  investigation  will  be  more  satisfactory.  If  a  wrong  address 
is  given,  or  if  a  woman  says  that  her  parents  are  living  in  a  city  miles 
away,  when  they  are,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  nearby,  much  of  the  work- 
er's time  is  consumed  in  trying  to  trace  them,  and  there  is  always  a 
chance  that  they  cannot  be  found.  This  involves  either  questioning 
the  subject  again,  or  losing  much  valuable  information  from  outside 
sources.  A  second  reason  of  importance  for  getting  a  true  initial 
story  is  that  this  information  may  be  all  that  can  be  obtained.  There 
are  cases  where  no  investigation  is  possible,  and  where  the  subject's 
statement  must  be  taken  as  the  best  information  available.  This  is 
true  of  many  foreign-born  women  whose  families  are  not  in  this  coun- 
try, or  of  native-born  who  have  no  close  friends.  There  is  also  much 
information  which  can  be  obtained  in  no  other  way  than  through  the 
subject.  This  includes  such  subjective  material  as  the  attitude  of  the 
subject  toward  persons  and  environmental  influences,  her  reasons  for 
doing  certain  things,  and  the  resulting  reactions.  Usually,  no  amount 
of  investigation  can  discover  these  intimate  personal  facts  which  are 
often  important  elements  in  the  delinquency,  and  so  it  is  very  necessary 
that  these  be  obtained  from  the  interviews  with  the  women  involved. 

The  possibility  of  obtaining  reliable  information  from  a  woman 
when  she  is  in  prison  and  the  investigator  is  a  stranger  to  her  is  de- 
pendent largely  upon  the  worker's  ability  to  establish  a  personal  rela- 
tionship, and  to  win  the  subject's  confidence.     In  some  cases  it  was 


METHODS  OF  SOCIAL  INVESTIGATION  63 

necessary  to  promise  not  to  investigate  certain  things  which  the  woman 
was  wilHng  to  talk  about  because  she  trusted  the  worker's  word.  In 
such  cases  there  was  undoubtedly  more  value  in  getting  the  story  di- 
rectly from  the  woman,  but  with  no  investigation,  than  in  failing  to 
win  her  confidence  sufficiently  to  get  her  story,  and  running  the  chance 
of  getting  part  of  the  information  from  another  source. 

Needless  to  say,  it  is  difficult  to  create  a  personal  relationship  in  a 
brief  interview  under  unfavorable  surroundings.  Wherever  it  was 
possible,  therefore,  particularly  among  the  women  in  the  Magdalen 
Home,  the  New  York  County  Penitentiary,  Auburn  State  Prison  and 
the  Reformatory  at  Bedford,  the  women  were  seen  several  times.  If 
she  was  in  an  antagonistic  mood  the  first  day,  usually  no  effort  was 
made  to  continue  the  questioning  at  that  time,  but  on  another  day  she 
was  approached  again.  With  the  more  intelligent  and  older  women, 
it  was  often  necessary  to  explain  the  purpose  of  the  questioning,  and 
to  say  that  an  investigation  was  being  made  for  research  purposes,  but 
that  in  each  case  the  welfare  and  interest  of  the  individual  concerned 
were  considered  first. 

Though  it  is  preferable  to  have  a  complete  statement  from  the 
woman  before  starting  the  investigation,  this  was  not  always  possible, 
especially  in  the  Probation  and  Workhouse  groups.  In  the  Probation 
group,  where  often  the  girl  was  seen  for  only  a  few  minutes  in  the 
court  room  on  the  night  of  her  conviction,  and  the  investigation  had 
to  be  made  before  the  next  night  when  she  was  to  be  sentenced,  it  was 
difficult  to  get  from  her  more  than  a  few  important  addresses  and  ref- 
erences. In  such  cases  the  fuller  "Statement  of  Girl"  had  to  come  after 
the  first  investigation.^  The  Workhouse  group  of  women  presented  dif- 
ficulties of  a  different  nature.  They  are  such  a  large,  heterogeneous 
group,  composed  of  women  sentenced  from  one  day  to  two  years,  that 
it  is  impossible  for  one  or  two  workers  to  make  any  impression  on 
them  in  a  short  time.  The  women  who  were  there  on  a  short  term 
or  who  w^ere  about  to  be  freed  from  the  institution  were  particularly 
difficult  to  obtain  satisfactory  information  from,  because  there  was  no 
incentive  for  them  to  tell  about  their  past  histories.  If  they  expected 
to  go  back  to  their  old  life  upon  release,  they  did  not  want  any  worker 
to  be  able  to  trace  them,  and  if  they  expected  to  go  to  work  they  did 
not  care  to  have  the  employer  know  about  their  record,  as  he  might  if 
there  was  a  chance  of  the  worker's  coming  to  visit.  There  are  also  a 
goodly  number  of  older  women  amon^  them,  many  of  whom  could 
not  remember  details  of  their  early  life.     Typical  among  them  is  the 


64      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

old  lady,  who,  when  questioned  about  some  detail  of  her  childhood, 
replied — "God  knows,  dearie,  I  don't."  Because  of  the  inherent  diffi- 
culties involved  in  this  group,  no  effort  was  made,  in  most  cases,  to 
see  a  woman  more  than  once,  and  at  that  time  the  best  information 
possible  was  obtained.  This  information,  we  realize,  is  much  less  re- 
liable than  the  statements  obtained  from  any  other  groups. 

In  each  case,  after  the  first  interview,  the  information  obtained  was 
recorded  on  the  "Statement  of  Girl"  folder.  A  copy  of  the  folder  is 
given  here  with  the  statement  of  a  girl  committed  to  the  Reformatory 
at  Bedford  Hills.     (See  pages  65-8.) 

Uniform  methods  of  technique  in  questioning  were  used  in  all  of 
the  cases.  With  age,  for  instance,  the  woman  was  asked  how  old  she 
was  and  was  further  asked  if  she  was  twenty-two  or  twenty-three,  as 
the  case  might  be.  on  her  last  birthday,  or  whether  she  was  to  be  that 
age  on  her  next  birthday.  Such  further  questioning  we  found  was 
essential  in  getting  the  correct  age,  since  many  persons,  particularly  the 
foreign  women,  counted  the  age  they  were  "going  on"  as  their  present 
age.  Many  of  them  were  unable  to  figure  out  the  year  of  birth,  so  we 
did  not  rely  on  their  statement  for  that,  but  used  only  the  statement 
of  number  of  years  old,  and  day  and  month  of  birth. 

The  section  on  residences  and  addresses  was  used  primarily  as  a 
check  on  dove-tailing  together  the  facts  in  the  woman's  history,  and 
as  an  aid  to  the  investigator  in  visiting  old  home  addresses.  Such  a 
summary  has  been  particularly  helpful  in  working  over  the  data  be- 
cause it  gives  in  a  condensed  form  the  frame  on  which  the  other  facts 
of  the  history  may  be  based.  Under  this  section  each  year  of  the 
woman's  life  was  accounted  for,  and  the  inforrnation  was  grouped  as 
follows : 

Assuming  that  the  subject  was  born  in  1890, 

1890-1902,  lived  with  parents  at  —  E.  10th  St.,  New  York  City. 
1902-1906,  lived  with  parents  at  —  E.   176th  St.,  New  York  City. 

1906-1910,  lived  with  employer,  Mrs.  ,  at  . 

1910-1915,  lived  with  husband  at ■ . 

April-July,  1915,  lived  in  furnished  room  at . 

July,   1915 — present  conviction,  lived  with  consort  at . 

All  of  the  section  on  family  history  was  obtained  with  great  care 
from  each  woman.  By  so  doing  and  by  getting  accurate  addresses, 
much  time  of  the  worker  was  saved  later.  This  section,  perhaps  more 
than  any  other,  required  tact  and  persistence  in  getting  reliable  infor- 
mation.    If  the  woman  did  not  want  certain  members  of  her  family 


METHODS  OF  SOCIAL  INVESTIGATION 


65 


Date  of  commitment  2/8/17 
Date  of  interview     2/14/17 


N0....1 

Field  worker. 


STATEMENT  OF  GIRL 


.A.  B.. 


NAME  AND  LAST  ADDRESS  Jane  Dow,  furnished  rooms  at  35  Pine  St,  and  64  Spruce  St.,  B — ,  N.  Y. 
Alias     Josctte  Kacniaeker 


AGE  AND  DATE  OF  BIRTH     19  years,  S  moa.     Born  6/23/97 

PLACE  OF  BIRTH     R— ,  N.  Y. 

HOW  LONG  IN  U.  S.     Always 

RELIGION     MethodLst 

MARITAL  CONDITION     Single  If  married,  when 

Under  what  name .... 


RACE      American 
COLOR  White 


Where .  .  . 
To  whom . 


RESIDENCES  AND  ADDRESSES     (In  chronological  order) 

1897-1913,  lived  in  R — — ,  with  her  parents.     Worked  in  several  places  but  always  came  home  at 
night. 

191.3-  until  3  wks.  before  arrest,  lived  in  N ,  N.  Y.,  with  her  parents  except  for  short  period 

of  time  in  O — ■ —  and  C — —  where  she  was  working. 
3  weeks  before  arrest,  lived  in  furnished  rooms  in  B — ■ — •,  N.  Y. 


FAMILY  HISTORY 

Name  and  address 
Father  Wm.  Dow,  3  Center  St., 
N ,  N.Y. 


Age    Birthplace  Time  in  U.S.  Occupation  Education 

40       N.Y.C.        Always        Fireman  in  Reads  and 

boiler  writes 
factory 


Naturalized 
Mother    Carrie  Black, — Mrs.  Dow, 

3  Center  St.,  N— ,  N.  Y. 
Sibs    1.  Girl,  died  at  2  days 

2.  Subject 

3.  Charles,  N^— ,  N.  Y. 

4.  John,  died  in  1907  at  age  of 

5.  Marietta,  N— ,  N.  Y. 


38 


13 
2 
4 


-,  N.Y. 


Left  in  8th 
grade 


In  6th  gr. 


Husband    None 


Children    None 


Other  relatives 

Paternal  uncle,  R.  M.  Dow,  F ,  N.  Y. 

Maternal  aunts-   Mrs.  J.  Street,  M ,  N.  Y. 

Mrs.  P.  Gray,  M ,  N.  Y. 


Institutional  record 
Relative 

None 


Institution 


Dates 


Complaint 


66      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DI-XINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

HOME  CONDITIONS 

During  Childhood  and  Adolescence  Livcni  in  R — ■ — ,  N.  Y.with  her  people  until  li)l.'5.  Always 
line!  !i  Kood  home  there.  At  first  her  people  lived  near  the  ereek,  then  on  M.  Ave.  and  later  on 
S.  St.  In  all  of  these  plaees  they  had  a  separate  liouse  with  quite  a  little  ground  so  that  they 
could  have  a  garden.     Each  of  these  houses  had  at  least  7  or  8  rooms. 

Economic  conditions     Father  used  to  earn  $25  to  $30  a  week  in  a  rubber  factory  in  R .     With 

this  income  her  mother  was  able  to  make  a  v^ry  comfortable  home. 

Moral  standards  Father  has  very  strict  standards.  "Would  never  allow  cider  in  the  house  even 
to  make  niinee-meat  because  he  was  afraid  that  the  boys  would  learn  to  drink."  Both  her 
mother  and  father  are  good  church  people. 

Attitude  toward  family     Seems  to  feel  kindly  toward  her  people  but  thinks  that  they  should  have 

cDiiie  to  B when  she  was  arrested.     Says  that  her  father  is  so  severe  that  he  will  never  feel 

the  same  toward  her  again  because  she  has  disgraced  his  name. 

During  Recent  Life 

Total  income  of  family  (Specify  items)  Has  worked  a  little  during  the  last  two  years  but  has  been 
at  home  most  of  the  time.  Her  father  is  now  earning  $16  a  week.  They  have  vegetables  which 
they  raised  on  their  farm  last  summer  and  they  have  cows  and  chickens  so  that  there  is  little 
necessity  for  buying  much  food. 

Expenses  of  family 

Rent     Lease  house  and  45  acres  of  ground  for  $15  month. 

Insurance     All  of  family  are  insured.     Jane  is  insured  in  Prudential  and  Colonial  for  $500. 

Benefit  societies,  etc.     Father  belongs  to  the  Order  of  Foresters. 

Miscellaneous  "Mother  has  to  squeeze  every  penny  in  order  to  get  along.  She  will  not 
run  a  grocery  bill  and  insists  upon  paying  for  the  lease  as  soon  as  the  money  is  due.  I  did 
not  think  I  could  stay  with  them  any  longer  unless  I  was  working." 

Character  of  locality  (Factory,  business,  suburban,  residence,  etc.)     Lives   out   in    the    country, 

some  distance  from  a  railroad  station.     Says  that  they  have  very  good  neighbors  and  that  every- 
body around  them  is  respectable. 

Type  of  dwelling  (Tenement,  separate  house,  etc.)     8  room,  wooden  house,  in  good  condition. 
Number  of  rooms     8 

Number  of  persons  in  household  (Specify  lodgers)     3  adults  and  2  children. 
Sleeping  accommodations     4  bedrooms.     Jane  had  a  room  to  herself. 

Moral  standards     See  above. 

Attitude  toward  family     Feels  very  sorry  for  her  mother  who  is  pregnant  again.     Thinks  that  this 

trouble  will  make  her  very  ill  and  worries  a  great  deal  for  fear  that  her  mother  may  not  live 

through  her  confinement. 


EDUCATION 

English-speaking     Yes  Read  and  write     English 

School  Address  (Last  school)     Public  school,  R ,  N.  Y. 

Age  at  starting  school     5  yrs.  Attendance     Regular 

Age  at  leaving  school  (If  under  i6,  had  she  obtained  an  employment  certificate)     12  yrs. 

Grade  at  leaving  school     Lacked  only  3  weeks  of  finishing  grammar  school. 

Reason  for  leaving  school  A  boy  threw  ink  on  the  back  of  Jane's  dress.  She  turned  around  and 
slapped  his  face,  and  because  she  did  this  her  teacher  shook  her,  pinched  her  arm  so  hard  that  the 
scar  lasted  for  two  years,  and  made  ber  nose  bleed.  Jane  was  so  upset  over  this  occurrence  that 
her  doctor  said  she  must  not  go  b/ick  to  school,  and  gave  her  a  doctor's  certificate  stating  that 
she  was  not  able  to  attend  school. 

Later  schooling     None 

Language  spoken  at  home     F^nglish 


METHODS  OF  SOCIAL  INVESTIGATION 


67 


WORK  HISTORY 
Kind  of  work 

1.  Operator 


(Places  of  employment  in  chronological  order  and  in  each:) 
Employer  and  Address  Dates  of  Weekly         Reason  for  Disposition 

employment         Wage  Leaving         of  Money 


2. 

Gen'l  housework 

Mrs.  M ,  R 

N.  Y. 

3. 

" 

Mrs.  M ,  Main 

R ,  N.  Y. 

4. 

" 

Mrs.   M ,   N— 

N.  Y. 

5. 

Waitress 

H Sanitarium, 

O— ,  N.  Y. 

6, 

" 

J Hospital,  C- 

N.Y. 

L Embroidery  fac-     6      wks.  1909       $5  wk. 

tory,  R ,  N.  Y. 

2}4  mos.  1913       $3  wk. 


Work  made 
her  nervous 

Employer 
"queer" 


,  Main  St.,     4      mos.  1913       $2}4  wk.    Moved  with 

parents 

2      wks.  1914       $6  wk.       Too  nervous 


2      wks.  1915     $18  mo.       Employer  too 
domineering 

2      wks.  1916     $20  mo.       Too  many 
supervisors 


Mother 


Self 


INSTITUTIONAL  HISTORY 
Previous  Court  Record  of  Delinquency  (Chronological  order) 

Date  Place  Complaint 

None 


Disposition 


Commitment  to  Non-Penal  Institutions  (Chronological  order) 

Institution  (As  Orphan  Asylum,  etc.)  Dates 

None 


Record  of  Conduct 


Hospitals 
None 


Dates 


Diagnosis 


Attitude  toward  institutional  experience     Insists  that  she  is  innocent  and  that  it  is  wrong  for  a  girl 
of  her  refinement  and  sensibilities  to  be  forced  to  associate  with  the  "street-girls"  in  a  reformatory. 


68      STUDY  OF  WOMl'.N  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


SEX  HISTORY 

First  sex  instructions  When     11  yeara  old 


From  whom     Mother.     (Menstruation  was  established  when   11 
yrs.  old) 


Age  at  first  sexual  offense     17  yrs. 

With  whom     Boy  she  knew  in  N- 


Rape  or  by  consent     Consent 


Approximate  age  at  entering  prostitution     Never.     Has  had  sexual  intercourse  twice,  the  first  time 

when  she  was  17  years,  by  consent,  and  the  second  time 

Only  means  of  support  when  she  was  in  O .     She  had  a  "lonesome  road"  to 

walk  after  she  left  the  street  car  and  one  night  a  man  who 

Practised  continually  since  had  noticed  her  on  the  car,  followed  her  and  forced  her  to 

have  relations  with  him. 


Practised  where  (Hotels,  furnished  rooms,  etc.) 


Average  weekly  earnings  from  prostitution 


HEALTH  (Diseases,  accidents,  operations,  etc.)     Has  always  been  very  nervous  and  has  had  the  tic 

of  twitrhini?  her  mouth  since  she  was  a  little  girl.  As  a  child  she  had  chicken-pox,  measles,  mumps 
and  rheumatism.     She  also  had  an  abscess  on  her  neck  which  her  mother  "drew  up"  with  a  poultice, 

until  it  broke.     Four  years  ago  she  had  tubercular  adenoids  removed  by  Dr.  B.  in  N .     She 

seems  to  be  extremely  nervous  at  present  and  is  conscious  all  the  time  of  the  twitching  of  her  face 
Is  troubled  with  neuralgia  a  great  deal.  For  several  years  has  had  spells  when  "ever.ything  goes 
black  for  10  or  15  minutes." 

Habits:        Alcohol     No  Drugs     No  Tobacco     No 


RECREATION  (Opportunities,  favorite  amusements,  friends,  etc.)     Says  she  has  never  had  an  oppor- 
tunity for  much  recreation.     When  she  was  a  child  in  R she  always  went  directly  home  from 

school  and  never  knew  other  children  very  well.     In  N — ■ — ■  she  became  acquainted  with  some 
.vouns  people  who  were  very  kind  to  her.     She  went  out  to  church  with  them  every  week  and 

occasionally  had  supper  with  them  at  a  small  inn  in  N .     Says  she  does  not  care  much  for 

danfing  and  has  never  been  to  a  theatre. 


SUPPLEMENTARY  FACTS  AND  EXPLANATION  (Details  of  offense  for  which  committed,  etc.) 
Jane  says  that  she  left  the  Hospital  where  .she  was  working  three  weeks  before  her  arrest  because 
there  were  too  many  supervisors.  She  went  to  B — ■ — ,  New  York,  where  she  rented  a  furnished 
room,  and  was  livint;  there  on  the  money  she  had  saved  when  she  was  arrested.  She  says  that  on 
the  night  of  her  arrest  she  had  been  to  a  dance,  the  third  one  she  had  ever  attended.  She  went 
directly  from  the  dance  to  a  hotel,  engaged  a  room,  and  had  just  entered  it  when  a  detect  ve 
came  in  and  said  she  was  under  arrest  on  a  charge  of  vagrancy.  She  says  she  was  going  to  work 
tlie  next  day,  and  had  enough  money  to  pay  for  her  room  that  night. 


METHODS  OF  SOCIAL  INVESTIGATION  69 

interviewed,  her  tendency  at  first  was  to  be  suspicious  and  refuse  to 
tell  anything.  Later  when  she  felt  she  could  rely  upon  the  worker's 
word,  she  would  give  a  correct  statement  concerning  her  family  with 
the  understanding  that  certain  members  were  not  to  be  seen. 

The  material  on  home  conditions  was  intended  to  give  a  picture  of 
each  woman's  reaction  toward  her  childhood  and  later  home.  This 
was  not  usually  obtained  by  direct  questioning,  but  more  often  came 
out  in  her  story  as  she  told  it,  uninterrupted.  The  other  details  such 
as  rent,  income,  kind  of  home,  etc.,  were  in  response  to  direct  ques- 
tions. A  particular  efifort  was  made  to  get  the  woman's  attitude  to- 
ward her  family,  her  treatment  by  them,  and  to  find  out  whether  the 
conditions  in  her  early  home  seemed  in  any  way  responsible  for  her 
delinquency. 

On  the  whole,  very  little  antagonism  was  met  in  asking  for  infor- 
mation concerning  the  school  history.  In  a  few  cases  the  last  school 
address  was  refused,  but  usually  it  was  possible  to  obtain  this,  if  the 
subject  understood  that  in  writing  for  the  school  record,  no  statement 
would  be  made  that  she  had  been  arrested.  The  reliability  of  the  in- 
formation given  by  the  women  of  the  various  groups  concerning  their 
school  attainments  seems  to  be,  as  would  be  expected,  in  direct  pro- 
portion to  the  degree  of  personal  relationship  that  could  be  established 
between  worker  and  subject.  Here,  again,  the  Workhouse  group  has 
sufifered  most.  Many  of  the  first  statements  among  them  were  so 
unreliable  that  repeated  efforts  to  locate  school  records  were  unsuccess- 
ful. Many  of  the  women  professed  to  have  forgotten  the  address  of 
the  last  school,  and  knowing  that  the  record  could  not  be  found  without 
it,  exaggerated  the  statement  of  their  attainments.  Among  the  younger 
women,  and  in  the  groups  where  several  interviews  were  possible,  there 
was  rarely  a  case  where  information  enabling  us  to  verify  the  record 
was  refused. 

The  work  record  was  the  most  difficult  information  to  obtain  from 
all  of  the  women.  An  attempt  was  made  to  find  out  about  each  job  she 
had  held  and  to  get,  especially,  about  each  job,  the  kind  of  work  done, 
the  length  of  time  employed,  wage  received,  reason  for  leaving  and 
the  address  of  the  employer  so  that  the  record  could  be  verified.  Ab- 
solute accuracy  in  obtaining  such  a  record  is  probably  impossible, 
especially  with  the  older  women  who  have  worked  during  a  number 
of  years,  and  have  had  many  jobs.  For  the  most  part,  however,  the 
material  is  quite  satisfactory,  and  checked  up  by  the  verification  not 
only  of  the  work  record  itself,  but  by  visits  to  members  of  the  family 


70      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

and  friends  who  have  known  intimately  of  the  subject's  life.  It  seems 
probable  that  records  of  most  of  the  important  jobs  have  been  obtained. 
The  very  irregular  work  records  have  been  the  ones  to  suffer  most  be- 
cause of  the  woman's  inability  to  remember  about  each  of  fifteen  or 
twenty  jobs.  But  by  persistent  questioning  as  to  the  kind  of  work 
she  was  doing  at  given  times,  it  has  been  possible  in  many  of  even 
these  most  irregular  cases,  to  obtain  from  the  women  and  to  verify  the 
bulk  of  the  jobs  during  her  work  period.  With  a  few  exceptions,  such 
questioning  met  little  antagonism.  It  seemed  a  natural  outgrowth  of 
friendly  questions  about  the  kind  of  work  she  was  doing  in  the  institu- 
tion, and  the  work  she  would  like  to  know  how  to  do,  to  her  past  work 
experience. 

The  record  of  previous  convictions  and  arrests  was  not  difficult  to 
obtain  from  most  of  the  women.  The  general  feeling  among  them 
seemed  to  be  that  a  record  of  their  convictions  was  on  file  at  the  court, 
and  that  it  was  useless  to  contradict  a  finger-print  record.  In  this 
connection  again,  the  older  women  in  the  Workhouse  were  least  able 
to  give  a  satisfactory  statement.  Those  who  had  had  ten  or  twenty 
previous  terms  would  say:  "I've  been  coming  here  off  and  on  for  the 
last  ten  years — don't  ask  me  how  many  times,  because  I  can't  remem- 
ber." 

Occasionally  some  woman  refused  to  give  the  facts  of  her  sex  his- 
tory, but  as  a  rule  no  embarrassment  seemed  to  be  felt  in  talking  of 
these  details.  The  method  of  approach  varied  in  this  with  the  different 
groups.  With  the  women  at  Bedford  where  the  initial  interview  came 
the  day  after  the  first  physical  examination,  the  most  satisfactory  way 
of  approaching  the  subject  was  by  questioning  first  about  previous 
health,  the  age  menstruation  was  established,  whether  at  that  time  sex 
instructions  were  given  and  from  that  to  questions  about  the  nature 
of  the  first  sex  offense  and  later  sexual  irregularities.  The  greatest 
difficulties  in  obtaining  these  facts  came  from  the  more  intelligent 
women  in  Auburn  Prison  and  the  New  York  County  Penitentiary — 
w^omien  who,  possibly,  had  been  sent  to  these  institutions  on  larceny 
charges  and  who  had  not  been  sex  offenders  more  than  a  few  times. 
To  many  such  a  woman  any  implication  that  she  was  a  prostitute  was 
most  distressing,  and  had  to  be  handled  carefully. 

The  section  on  supplementary  facts  was  made  to  include  a  brief 
statement  dove-tailing  together  the  main  facts  otherwise  indicated  on 
the  folder,  and  such  additional  factors  as  conduct,  abnormal  traits, 
attitude  toward  her  delinquency,  etc. 


METHODS  OF  SOCIAL  INVESTIGATION  71 

METHOD    OF    INVESTIGATION 

With  these  data  from  the  initial  interview  the  field  worker  started 
the  investigation.  In  all  of  the  groups  except  Bedford,  where  it  was 
necessary  for  one  who  had  most  intimate  contact  with  the  woman  to 
he  near  the  institution  all  of  the  time,  the  worker  investigated  the  cases 
she  had  interviewed.  This  method  of  procedure  is  preferable  where 
the  investigation  per  se  is  the  object  of  interest,  not  only  because  it  is 
time-saving  but  also  because  the  worker  has  a  better  knowledge  of  the 
case  if  she  has  had  the  first  interview. 

(c)   General  Procedure  of  Investigation 

The  general  plan  of  investigation  was  aimed  to  cover  by  visits  and 
letters  verification  of  all  points  which  are  included  on  the  "Statement 
of  Girl"  folder,  with  such  additional  data  as  could  be  given  by  friends 
or  relatives  on  conduct,  traits,  etc. 

A  general  order  of  investigation  was  followed  in  all  cases  where 
it  was  feasible.  Many  times  it  was  impracticable  to  follow  any  given 
arrangement  particularly  when  it  happened  that  the  worker  had  several 
calls  to  be  made  on  different  cases  in  the  same  locality. 

Every  case  that  had  at  any  time  lived  in  New  York  or  Brooklyn, 
was  first  registered  with  the  Social  Service  Exchange.  In  this  way, 
information  giving  the  social  agencies  interested  in  the  family  was  ob- 
tained in  many  cases. 

Wherever  possible  the  court  record,  including  the  probation  offi- 
cer's report,  was  obtained  early  in  the  investigation.  The  probation 
officer  was  also  interviewed,  so  that  the  worker  might  know  what 
work  had  been  done  on  the  case  before  starting  on  her  own  investiga- 
tion. If  the  finger-print  record  giving  the  number  of  previous  con- 
victions was  not  included  in  the  probation  officer's  report,  this  record 
was  obtained  directly  from  the  Finger-Print  Bureau.  With  all  of  the 
Penitentiary  women  and  with  the  women  sentenced  to  the  Workhouse 
on  an  indeterminate  sentence,  it  was  not  necessary  to  get  the  court 
and  probation  officer's  records  since  these  were  included  in  the  report 
of  the  Parole  Commission,  through  whose  hands  these  women  had 
passed.  Our  workers  were  given  the  benefit  of  all  of  the  investiga- 
tion done  by  the  parole  officers,  and  in  this  way  were  able  to  save  much 
duplication  of  work. 

With  women  who  were  convicted  in  districts  outside  of  New  York 
City,  it  was  usually  possible  to  interview  the  Chief  of  Police  and  the 


72      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

arresting  officer  who,  in  the  smaller  hjcalitics  at  least,  had  a  fair  knowl- 
edge of  the  extent  of  the  woman's  delinquencies,  and  of  her  family 
history.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  probation  officer  in  most  of 
these  smaller  places,  and  no  record  of  finger-prints  to  determine  num- 
ber of  past  convictions.  This  necessitates  going  through  many  volumes 
of  inaccurately  kept  records,  year  by  year,  to  get  a  woman's  past  rec- 
ord, and  if  she  has  used  several  aliases  it  is  very  difficult  to  obtain  her 
complete  record. 

The  difficulty  in  obtaining  finger-print  records  for  women  committed 
to  Auburn  State  Prison  was  particularly  marked.  The  women  con- 
victed in  New  York  City  are  not  usually  finger-printed  after  convic- 
tion until  they  are  received  in  Auburn  Prison.  The  Police  Depart- 
ment of  New  York  finger-prints  only  a  few  felony  cases  who  permit 
this  to  be  done  before  conviction.  After  conviction,  the  prisoner  is 
out  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Police  Department  and  need  not  go  to 
the  Police  Headquarters.  The  finger-prints  and  Bertillon  measure- 
ments are  taken,  however,  in  Auburn  State  Prison,  and  two  copies  are 
made.  One  is  sent  to  the  Bureau  of  Identification  of  the  State  Prison 
Department  in  Albany,  and  one  is  filed  at  the  prison.  The  subject's 
statement  of  previous  record  is  taken  at  the  time  of  the  finger  print, 
and  is  transmitted  with  the  copies  of  the  finger-prints  to  the  Bureau 
in  Albany.  This  means  that  the  Bureau  of  Identification  has  the  actual 
finger-print,  any  previous  record  in  a  state  prison,  and  the  subject's 
statement  except  in  occasional  cases  where  the  finger-print  expert  in 
the  prison  has  written  to  other  cities  to  find  out  whether  the  woman  has 
a  longer  record  than  she  is  willing  to  admit.  The  Bureau  of  Identifica- 
tion in  Albany  does  not  as  a  matter  of  routine  have  a  record  of  mis- 
demeanors and  other  less  serious  offenses  which  could  be  obtained  by 
sending  a  finger  print  to  the  Police  Department  in  New  York,  so  that 
previous  convictions  there  could  be  traced. 

Therefore,  in  order  to  get  a  complete  verified  criminal  record  of  the 
women  in  Auburn  Prison,  it  was  necessary  in  each  case  to  obtain  the 
statement  filed  with  the  Bureau  of  Identification  at  Albany  and  to 
send  for  whatever  record  could  be  obtained  from  the  Police  Depart- 
ment in  New  York.  If  the  woman  had  used  many  aliases  unknown 
to  our  worker  such  a  record  could  seldom  be  located  in  the  index  of 
names  in  New  York.  If  the  woman  had  had  a  previous  conviction 
before  being  received  at  Auburn,  however,  and  the  exact  date  and 
name  used  were  known,  her  record  in  New  York  previous  to  that  con- 


METHODS  OF  SOCIAL  INVESTIGATION  73 

viction  could  be  obtained  through  her  finger-print  taken  at  that  time. 
In  addition  to  applying  to  the  two  above-named  bureaus,  we  wrote,  in 
every  case  where  a  woman  had  a  record  in  another  city,  to  the  chief  of 
police  in  that  city,  to  verify  the  woman's  statement  and  to  find  out 
whether  there  was  any  further  record. 

After  obtaining  the  data  from  the  courts  and  those  connected  with 
the  courts,  the  worker  in  most  cases  visited  the  social  organizations 
which  had  come  into  contact  with  the  subject  or  her  famil_\-.  From 
such  organizations  a  full  record  was  obtained.  These  data  furnished 
a  background  for  understanding  the  subject,  and  made  the  subsequent 
visits  to  the  immediate  family  more  valuable. 

There  seem  to  be  many  advantages  in  thus  obtaining  records  of  the 
court  and  social  agencies  before  any  members  of  the  immediate  family 
are  seen.  Such  information  often  enables  the  worker  to  question  the 
family  about  facts  which  she  would  know  nothing  of  without  first  hav- 
ing seen  the  records.  Again,  many  families  are  loath  to  tell  that  the 
woman  under  investigation  has  done  certain  reprehensible  things  and 
had  many  convictions  if  they  feel  that  the  worker  knows  nothing  of 
these  delinquencies,  but  if  they  understand  that  the  worker  has  a 
knowledge  of  what  has  occurred,  they  often  tell  more  than  could  possi- 
bly be  obtained  from  any  record. 

After  having  seen  members  of  the  immediate  family,  the  general 
trend  of  the  investigation  was  to  interview  other  relatives  who  might 
be  able  to  throw  light  on  either  the  subject  or  her  family,  and  follow- 
ing that  to  see  the  subject's  husband  or  consort  if  there  were  one, 
friends,  landladies,  and  other  persons  who  might  be  able  to  give  any- 
thing concerning  important  events  which  stood  out  in  the  subject's  life. 
On  the  whole,  these  latter  informants  are  considered  far  less  reliable 
than  any  of  those  first  mentioned.  A  landlady,  for  instance,  often 
gives  inaccurate  information  concerning  the  number  of  men  a  girl 
takes  to  her  room  because  she  realizes  that  she  herself  could  be  prose- 
cuted for  maintaining  a  disorderly  house,  if  she  admitted  that  she  al- 
lowed such  things.  In  many  cases,  if  the  landlady  felt  the  girl  had 
given  evidence  which  would  incriminate  her,  she  exaggerated  the  girl's 
untruthfulness  and  dishonesty. 

(b)    Form  of  Report  of  Investigation 

The  information  incorporated  in  the  field  worker's  report  was  di- 
vided throughout  into  three  main  parts : — 


74      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

I.     Information  concerning  the  suljject. 
II.     Information    concerning    the    subject's    family. 
III.     Correspondence  relating  to  the  subject  and  her  family. 

This  material  was  written  up  in  detail,  in  the  order  in  which  the  visits 
were  made,  with  all  of  the  information  received  from  each  informant 
recorded  separately.  The  first  part  of  the  report  includes  all  of  the 
information  obtained  by  the  field  worker,  relating  to  the  history  of  the 
subject.  Where  an  individual,  not  a  member  of  the  family,  was  inter- 
viewed, a  brief  description  of  the  informant  was  given,  with  the  field 
worker's  impression  of  his  reliability  and  accuracy.  Aside  from  this, 
no  other  extraneous  data  were  included  in  Section  I.  A  summary  of 
the  order  used  in  this  section  is  as  follows : — 

I.     Information  Concerning  the  Subject. 

A.  Information  obtained  from  court  records,  probation  officer,  finger- 
prints. 

B.  Information  obtained  from  social  organizations  which  have 
been  interested  in  the  subject. 

C.  Information  of  some  member  of  immediate  family, — mother, 
father  or  older  sister  or  brother  as  case  may  be.  This  informa- 
tion, wherever  possible,  was  made  to  cover  the  following  groups 
of  facts.  The  grouping  was  very  flexible,  however,  and  in 
many  cases  certain  sections  were  omitted  where  there  was 
nothing  of  importance. 

1.  Infancy.  Includes  date  and  place  of  birth,  whether  or  not 
a  full  term  child,  health  during  infancy,  age  at  beginning 
to  walk,  talk,  etc. 

2.  Childhood.  Includes  health,  any  abnormal  traits,  conduct, 
development. 

3.  School  Period.  Age  at  starting  ar.d  leaving  school,  the 
grade    reached,    conduct    in    school,    health. 

4.  Adolescent  Period.     Age  menstruation  was  established,  and 
'      general   health   and  coiiduct  at  that  time. 

5.  Jl'ork  Period.  iMl  jobs  in  chronological  order,  with  kind 
of    work    done,    length    of    employment,    wage,    ability,    and 

disposition  of  wages  for  each  job. 

6.  Adult  Period.  This  section  applies  particularly  to  the  older 
women,  and  includes  any  important  data  on  marital  life, 
delinquency,   institutional   commitments,   etc. 

7.  Health.  This  section  was  used  where  it  was  desirable  to 
have  a  summary  of  health,  such  as  cases  of  certain  epileptics 
in  whom  it  was  of  interest  to  observe  the  development  of 


METHODS  OF  SOCIAL  INVESTIGATION  75 

the  disease.  In  many  instances,  where  health  was  considered 
under  the  various  periods,  it  was  not  repeated  here. 
8.  Conduct,  Traits,  Etc.  This  section  was  used  particularly 
where  it  seemed  advisable  to  show  development  of  traits  and 
behavior,  as  in  many  psychopathic  cases,  or  where  there  was 
a  history  of  continued  maladaptation. 

D.  Information  of  all  other  relatives.  Facts  from  several  inform- 
ants were  recorded  separately  in  the  order  in  which  they  were 
obtained. 

E.  Information  of  consort  or  pimp. 

F.  Information  of  landlady  and  friends.  All  information  under 
this  section  and  the  following  one  was  preceded  by  a  state- 
ment as  to  general  impression  and  probable  reliability  of  the 
informant. 

G.  Information  of  certain  employers.  Includes  information  rela- 
tive to  kind  of  work  done,  ability,  wage,  conduct,  etc. 

II.  Family  History.  All  of  the  information  under  this  section  was 
grouped  by  separate  interviews,  so  that  the  statement  of  any  unre- 
liable   or    prejudiced    informant    could    be    selected    from    the    rest. 

A.  Home  conditions. 

1.  Early  home  during  childhood  and  adolescence,  including 
description  of  economic  and  moral  standards,  parental 
supervision,  income,  spirit  in  the  home,  etc. 

2.  Later  home  life,  with  information  similar  to  that  given 
above,  and  in  addition  more  detailed  facts  regarding  rent, 
insurance,  exact  income,  size  of  home,  etc. 

B.  Information  concerning  the  husband  or  consort. 

1.  Field   worker's   impression   after   interview. 

2.  Information  of  husband  or  consort,  including  statement 
as  to  age,  birthplace,  education,  occupation,  habits,  health, 
wage,    and    personal    history    in    brief. 

3.  Information  of  other  informants,  including  court,  institu- 
tional and  employment  records,  statements  of  friends,  rela- 
tives, etc.  An  effort  was  made  to  obtain  information  con- 
cerning his  characteristics,  traits,  and  treatment  of  the 
subject. 

C.  Information  concerning  the  subject's  children.  The  informa- 
tion in  this  and  in  the  other  three  sections  follows  the  order 
and  general   form  used  in  Section  B  on  Subject's  Husband. 

D.  Information  concerning  the  subject's  father. 

E.  Information   concerning  the   subject's   mother. 

F.  Information  concerning  the  subject's  fraternity. 

Wherever   it   was   possible   to  do   any   more   intensive   work   on 


76      STUDY  OF  WOMl-.N  DRLTNQUENTS  IN  N1<AV  YORK 

family   history,   the   order   used  by   Dr.   Charles   B.   Davenport- 
at  Cold  Spring  Harbor,  was  followed:  i.e. 
Father's  fraternity. 

Father's   parents   and   their   fraternities. 
Mother's    fraternity. 
Mother's  parents  and  their  fraternities. 
III.     Correspondence.    In   general,   letters   were   written   to   the    following 
sources    of    information,    asking    for    the    main    facts    in    which    we 
were   particularly    interested.      Many   of  these   letters   were   written 
not   only   to   obtain   information  about   the   subject,  but   also  to  ob- 
tain   institutional    records,    school    records,    etc.,    concerning    other 
members  of  the  family. 

A.  Schools.  Request  was  made  for  record  card,  or  information 
giving  years  in  school,  grade  readied,  age  and  date  at  leaving, 
conduct. 

B.  Institutions,  both  Orphanages  or  Homes  and  Penal  Institutions. 
Request  was  made  for  cause  of  commitment,  dates  of  entrance 
and   discharge,   conduct. 

C.  Hospitals.  A  form  letter  was  sent  to  hospitals  asking  for 
length  of  stay,  diagnosis,  and  any  personal  or  family  history 
obtained. 

D.  Employers.  Nearly  all  of  the  work  records  were  verified  by 
correspondence,  though  occasionally  the  worker  visited  where 
the  subject  had  been  employed  for  a  long  time  in  one  place, 
or  where  it  was  felt  that  the  employer  could  give  valuable 
information   bearing  directly   on   the  girl's  delinquency. 

E.  Bureau  of  Records.  An  effort  was  made  to  verify  each  marriage, 
and  in  many  cases  where  there  was  confusion  as  to  age, 
to  verify  the  date  of  birth. 

SUMMARY  OF   STT'DY 

When  the  preceding  information  had  been  obtained,  and  the  replies 
to  the  letters  had  come  in,  all  of  the  data  were  stimmarized,  and  re- 
corded in  condensed  form  on  the  Verified  History  Blank  which  is  given 
here.  The  case  presented  shows  how  the  summarized  verified  data 
varies  from  the  girl's  own  statement  which  has  previously  been  given. 

This  blank,  it  will  be  noticed,  is  comparable  in  form  to  the  "State- 
ment of  Girl"  blank  presented  in  preceding  pages,  except  that  it  lacks 
certain  sections  on  "Attitude"  which  were  included  to  portray  the  sub- 
ject's own  feeling.    This  summary  of  the  investigation  was  intended  to 

*  Davenport,  Charles  B.  "The  Family  History  Book."  Bulletin  No.  7,  Eu- 
genics Record  Office.  Cold  Spring  Harbor,  N.  Y.  September,  1912.  Appen- 
dix 1.  p.  95. 


METHODS  OF  SOCIAL  INVESTIGATION 


77 


Date  of  commitment  2/  8/17 
Date  of  interview         2/14/17 


NAME     Jane  Dow 


VERIFIED  HISTORY 


N0...1 

Field  worker.  . A.  B. 


OFFENSE    Vagrant,  having  no  visible  means  of  support,  living  without  employment  and  having  con- 
tracted an  inliectious  disease  in  practise  of  debauchery. 

SENTENCE     Indeterminate  3  years. 

JUDGE     Brown 


COURT     Recorder's  Court,  B ,  New  York.     X  County 


AGE  AND  DATE  OF  BIRTH     16  years,  7  months.  Born  June  23,  1900  i 

PLACE  OF  BIRTH     R ,  New  York  >  RACE        American 

HOW  LONG  IN  U.  S.     Always  i  COLOR    White 

RELIGION     Methodist  > 


MARITAL  CONDITION     Married  2      If  married,  when     July  30,  1910 
Under  what  name     Jane  Dow 


Where     C ,  New  York 

To  whom     John  Gray 


RESIDENCES  AND  ADDRESSES       (In  chronological  order) 

1900-1913,  lived  in  R— — ,  New  York,  with  parents. 

1913-   three  weeks  before  arrest,  lived  in  N ,  New  York,  with  parents,  except  for  short  periods  of 

time  in  O — — ,  C ,  S ,  and  M ,  New  York.' 

Three  weeks  before  arrest  lived  in  furnished  rooms  in  B ,  New  York.* 


FAMILY  HISTORY 

Name  and  address  Age 

Father     William  Dow,  3  Center  St.,        48 
N — — ■,  New  York.   Works  steadily 
and  is  respectable.''^''' 
Naturahzed 

Mother     Carrie  Black,   Mrs.   Dow,  3     37 

Center    St.,    N ,    New    York. 

Seems  fairly  intelligent.    Is  quite 
nervous.   Said  to  be  unreliable.* 

Sibs  1 

1.  Girl,  died  in  infancy. 

2.  Subject. 

3.  Miscarriage  at  two  months. 

4.  Charles,  N ,  New  York.   Was     12 

threatened  with  tuberculosis  a 
few  years  ago.  Is  said  to  be 
troublesome  and  does  petty 
thieving. 

5.  John,  died  in  1907  at  the  age  of       2 

Had  pneumonia  and  tubercular 
abscess  in  his  neck. 

6.  Marietta,  N ,  New  York.  4 

7.  Child,  born  April  1917. 


Birthplace     Time  in  U.  S.  Occupation  Education 

New  York  Always  In  dye       Reads  and '" 

State  works  writes 


Left  in  8th 
grade 


In  5th 
grade 


Husband  John  Gray,  address  unknown.  26         Utah 
Children     None  » 


Brakeman 


7  > 


Other  relatives     Paternal  uncle,  R.  M.  Dow,  F — • — ,  New  York.' 


Institutional  Record 

Relative 
None ' 


Institution 


Dates 


Complaint 


78       STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

HOME  CONDITIONS 

During  Childhood  and  Adolescence  Has  lived  with  her  parents  iiiimt  of  the  time  until  1910.  At 
one  time  she  went  to  her  Krand mother  in  Massachusetts  where  she  remained  for  six  months.  It 
seems  probable  that  she  has  always  had  a  fairly  good  home  and  that  the  mother  has  tried  to  give 
Jane  some  training  and  sujjervision.  The  home  spirit  seems  fairly  good  tlujugh  the  mother  is 
sometimes  sharp  in  speaking  to  the  children.     Father  has  always  worked  steadily  and  has  earned 

a  regular  wage.     Two  years  ago  the  family  moved  from  R into  the  country  where  they  had  a 

house  of  eight  rooms  and  paid  $10  rent.  They  had  a  garden  but  did  not  raise  much  more  than 
enough  for  their  own  use.  Jane  always  had  her  own  room  when  she  was  a  child.'  A  school 
teacher  who  used  to  know  the  family  says  that  the  mother  was  quite  slack  and  did  not  keep  the 
home  clean.* 

Economic  conditions  Probably  fair  because  tather  worked  steadily.  Usually  earned  from  $25 
to  $S0  a  week. ' 

Moral  standards  Probably  good.  Parents  have  fairly  good  reputation  and  the  father  especially 
seems  to  have  been  very  strict  in  his  moral  standards.* 

During  Marital  or  Recent  Life  Has  worked  a  little  during  the  last  two  years  but  has  been  at  home 
the  most  of  the  time.'  When  away  from  home  last  summer  was  married  and  shortly  after  that 
was  committed  to  an  institution.'  Has  been  at  home  off  and  on  since  her  release  from  the  in- 
stitution.' 

Total  income  of  family  (Specify  items)  Father  earns  $3  a  day.  Jane  earned  a  small  and  irregular 
wage  but  spent  it  all  for  herself.'" 

Expenses  of  family 

Rent     Parents  pay  $8  a  month  rent  now.' 

Insurance     All  of  the  family  are  insured,  Jane  in  the  Prudential  &  Colonial  for  $500.* 

Benefit  societies,  etc.     Father  belongs  to  Order  of  Foresters.* 

Miscellaneous 

Character  of  locality  (Factory,  business,  suburban,  residence,  etc.)  Present  home  in  unpreten- 
tious but  respectable  neighborhood,  about  twenty  minutes'  walk  from  the  railroad  station,  in  a 
country  district. ^ 

Type  of  dwelUng  (Tenement,  separate  house,  etc.)     Two  story,  frame  house,  rather  attractive 
and  in  good  repair. - 
Number  of  rooms     7  ' 

Number  of  persons  in  household  (Specify  lodgers)     5,  including  patient.' 
Sleeping  accommodations     Jane  has  always  had  a  room  to  herself. ' 

Moral  standards  See  above.  While  away  from  home  probably  got  in  with  a  fast  crowd  of 
people  so  that  her  moral  standards  became  lowered.* 


EDUCATION 

English-speaking     Yes  Read  and  write     English 

School  Address  (Last  school)     Public  school,  R ,  New  York.' 

Age  at  starting  school     5  years  -  Attendance     Very  poor  ' 

Age  at  leaving  school  (If  under  i6,  had  she  obtained  an  employment  certificate)     13  years.     No 
employment  certificate.' 

Grade  at  leaving  school     5B  grade.' 

Reason  for  leaving  school     Moved.     Was  in  a  very  nervous  condition  and  the  doctor  advised  that 
she  be  taken  out  of  school. ' 

Later  schooling     None  ' 

Language  spoken  at  home     English  > 


METHODS  OF  SOCIAL  INVESTIGATION 


79 


WORK  HISTORY 
Kind  of  work 

1.  Operator 


(Places  of  employment  in  chronological  order  and  in  each:) 

Weekly        Reason  for         Ability 
Wage  Leaving 

Green's  Embroidery     Several  times.  $5  wk.  111.  ?  ^ 

Factory,    R ,       6  or  7  weeks,  1913. 

New  York. 


Employer  and  Address        Dates  of 
employment 


2.  Gen'l  housework    Mrs.  M ,  R ,     2}^  moa.,  1913 

New  York. 


S3  wk. 


Employer 
"queer." 


?   *.l 


Mrs.    M ,    Main     4  mos.,  1913. 

St.,    R ,    New 

York. 


$2.50  wk.       Moved  from         7  *•  > 
R— . 


4.  Housework 


Mrs.  M ,  N ,     5  days,  Nov.,  1916.    $5  wk. 

New  York. 


Discharged.  Very  poor 
worker.^ 


5.  Waitress 


H — ■ —  Sanitarium,       1  week,  1916. 
O ,  New  York. 


$18  mo.  Discharged.  No    train- 

ing.     Not 
clean. 
Immoral. 


6.  Waitress 


J Hospital,  C—,  2  weeks,  Dec.  5-     $20  mo. 

New  York.  23,  1916. 


Disposition  of  Money    Spent  money  on  self.  • 


Discharged.  Unsatis- 
factory, 
rude,  im- 
pertinent 
and  indis- 
creet with 
men.2 


INSTITUTIONAL  HISTORY 
Previous  Court  Record  of  Delinquency  (Chronological  order) 

Date  Place  Complaint  Disposition 

August  15,  1916  R ,  New  York.  Soliciting  St.  Ann's  SchooI.'Albany.^ 

Committed  for  6  months 
but  served  only  1  month. 


Commitment  to  Non-Penal  Institutions  (Chronological  order) 

Institution  (As  Orphan  Asylum,  etc.)  Dates 

None  ' 


Record  of  Conduct 


Hospitals 

None  ' 


Dates 


Diagnosis 


80      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

SEX  HISTORY 

First  sex  instructions  When     12  years.     (Menstruation  was  established  at  12  years.)' 

From  whom     Mother.' 

Age  at  first  sexual  offense     14  years.* 

With  whom     Moy  .slu-  knew  in  N ,  New  York.* 

Rape  or  by  consent     Consent.* 

Approximate  age  at  entering  prostitution    Never.     Has  hud    sexual  intercourse'  only  twice.*     Has 

reputation  of  having  been  immoral  lor  at  least  two  ycars.^ 

Only  means  of  support ...  .  Two  weeks  previous  to  last  arrest  was  hanginK  around 

the  docks  at  R — ■ — ■  and  consorting  with  soldiers.     Took 

Practised  continually  since    ...  men  into  empty  freight  cars.     Chief  of  Police,  *. 


Practised  where  (Hotels,  furnished  rooms,  etc.) . 
Average  weekly  earnings  from  prostitution .... 


HEALTH  (Diseases,  accidents,  operations,  etc.)  (.5'  7"  tall  and  weighs  liiyi  lbs.  Has  quite  a  high 
palate.  Has  two  carious  teeth.  Heart  shows  slight  systolic  murmur.  Vaginal  examination 
showed  hypertrophy  of  external  genitals  and  considerable  yellowish  discharge.  Wassermann  and 
complement  fixation  test  for  gonorrhea,  negative.)  ■  Had  painter's  colic  when  a  baby.  Cried 
steadily  for  three  days  after  birth.  Has  been  troubled  with  constipation  since  she  was  a  baby. 
>iever  had  any  diseases  except  measles  and  whooping  cough.  Began  to  be  very  nervous  when  '.• 
or  10  years  old.  Her  face  twitched  and  she  gave  a  little  kick  with  one  foot  when  she  walked 
When  9  years  old  had  her  adenoids  removed  and  examination  of  them  showed  presence  ot  tu- 
berculosis. ' 

Habits:       Alcohol     No*-'  Drugs     No  *•  '  Tobacco     No  *• » 


RECREATION  (Opportunities,  favorite  amusements,  friends,  etc.)     See  Statement  of  Girl. 


SUPPLEMENTARY  FACTS  AND  EXPLANATION  (Details  of  offense  for  which  committed,  etc.) 

When  Jane  was  a  very  young  cliild  she  was  inclined  to  be  disobedient.  Frequently  she  did  not 
come  home  from  school  promptly  and  would  be  whipped.  .lane's  aunt  feels  that  because  she  was  so 
ner\-ous  she  should  not  have  been  whipped  so  much  and  that  her  treatment  only  exaggerated  her  ner- 
vous condition.  She  has  always  been  quick-tempered  and  irritable. 'i'  Since  leaving  home  in 
1916,  Jane  has  undoubtedly  been  promiscuous  sexually.  One  employer  writes  of  her  that  "she  is 
not  personally  physicall.v  clean  and  I  am  afraid  that  her  morals  are  even  worse."  Another  em- 
ployer writes  that  she  was  very  indiscreet  in  her  attitude  toward  male  employees.  ^  She  was  mar- 
ried to  a  man  she  had  known  only  a  short  time  and  he  left  the  night  after  they  were  married  to  go 
to  Texas  with  his  regiment.'"''^ 

Jane's  heredity  is  fairly  good.  Her  father  is  quite  intelligent  and  steady.  The  mother 
seems  to  be  normal  mentally  and  physically,  though  she  may  not  have  a  very  strict  standard  of 
truthfulness.  The  mother  has  had  seven  children,  two  of  whom  died  during  infancy  and  one  was 
a  miscarriage  at  two  months.     One  of  the  children  died  of  a  tubercular  abscess  in  his  neck. 

The  details  of  Jane's  life  preceding  her  arrest  are  aa  follows:     She  did  not  tell  her  mother 

that  she  was  discharged  from  the  J Hospital  in  C — ■ — -,  New  York,  and  after  she  had  been  home 

for  a  short  time  s'.io  told  her  mother  that  she  was  going  back  to  the  hospital.      Instead,  she  went 

to  B and  liad  been  there  about  a  week  before  her  arrest.     She  met  some  woman  in  the  station 

and  asked  her  about  getting  a  room.  The  woman  referred  her  to  the  Y.W.C.A.,  which  gave  her 
a  list  of  boarding  places.  With  this  list,  Jane  went  to  one  of  the  places  and  told  the  woman  who 
was  running  the  house  that  she  was  doing  investigations  tor  the  National  Board  of  the  Y.W.C.A. 
She  stayed  with  this  woman  for  two  nights.  On  the  third  night  she  did  not  come  in.  On  the  following 
night  she  went  to  one  of  the  other  places  about  twelve  at  night  and  told  the  same  story  and  was  let 
in.  The  night  after  that,  she  did  not  get  in  until  three  o'clock  and  the  woman  thought  there 
was  something  queer  about  it  and  reported  it  to  the  Y.W.C.A.,  who  put  the  matter  into  the  hands 

of  the  police.     She  was  found  going  into  the  D House,  a  poor  hotel,  about  two  o'clock  at  night 

and  although  they  had  no  very  definite  charge  against  her  the  police  arrested  her.  At  that  time, 
Jane  told  the  Recorder  that  she  had  a  venereal  disease  and  so  he  committed  her  here  on  her  own 
statement.* 


METHODS  OF  SOCIAL  INVESTIGATION  81 

present  a  digest  of  the  various  opinions  on  the  case.  It  was  planned 
primarily  in  an  effort  to  get  away  from  the  usual  form  of  having  the 
worker  make  out  an  arbitrary  statement  of  what  she  considered  were 
probably  the  correct  facts  and  interpretation  of  certain  events  in  the 
subject's  life.  It  seemed  necessary,  in  order  to  minimize  the  per- 
sonal equation  as  much  as  possible,  to  have  all  of  these  data  in  the 
form  of  a  summary  of  the  material  obtained,  rather  than  as  a  clear- 
cut,  one-sided  picture  of  the  subject's  life  summarized  by  the  worker. 
With  the  plan  used,  all  of  the  cases  were  treated  in  the  same  way  by 
a  few  persons  who  finally  worked  over  the  data,  choosing  in  each  in- 
stance where  two  contradictory  statements  were  given,  the  one  which 
seemed  most  consistent  with  the  general  plan  used  for  all  of  the  cases. 
On  the  "Verified  History"  folders,  each  important  fact  recorded  was 
followed  by  a  small  index  number  in  red  ink,  which  indicated  by  what 
source  that  information  had  been  given.  This  was  particularly  useful 
in  the  data  on  sex  history  where  there  were  often  varying  indefinite 
opinions.  The  following  illustration  will  show  how  many  opinions 
there  may  be  on  the  same  case : 

Approximate  Age  at  Entering  Prostitution 

Never  (A).  Eighteen  years — one  year  ago  when  she  ran  away 
from  home  (^).  Nineteen  years — four  weeks  before  arrest  began  to  be 
wild,  and  stayed  out  late  at  night  (*).  Fifteen  years — has  been  known 
on  the  street  for  four  years,  as  a  prostitute  (^). 

Here,  the  subject  (A)  denies  prostitution,  while  her  mother  (^) 
admits  that  since  the  girl  ran  away  a  year  before,  she  had  prostituted. 
The  mother  seemed  frank  and  truthful  in  giving  information  and  told 
of  places  where  the  girl  had  worked  steadily  until  a  year  before.  These 
we  were  able  to  verify,  and  found  that  up  to  that  time  she  had  been 
doing  good  work,  and  there  was  no  cause  to  suspect  immoral  conduct. 
The  landlady  (*)  with  whom  the  girl  had  lived  during  the  preceding 
year,  seemed  evasive  and  suspicious.  Not  wishing  to  incriminate  her- 
self, she  was  unwilling  to  say  that  the  girl  had  prostituted  in  her  home, 
but  had  to  admit  that  recently  she  had  had  reason  to  suspect  she  was 
not  doing  right.  The  chief  of  police  (^),  on  the  other  hand,  probably 
exaggerated  greatly  the  information  he  gave.  For  a  year  he  had  heard 
of  this  girl,  and  perhaps  before  that  he  had  noticed  her,  especially  if 
she  had  made  undesirable  acquaintances.  In  giving  his  information,  he 
unconsciously  made  her  out  to  be  much  worse  than  she  really  was. 
This  we  were  able  to  prove  by  verification  of  her  work  and  school  rec- 


82       STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

ords,  wliich  gave  lier  a  good  reputation  during  the  period  the  chief  of 
police  in  the  small  town  had  said  she  was  prostituting.  The  hest  judg- 
ment on  the  case  seems  then  to  he  that  she  began  to  prostitute  at  eigh- 
teen, after  leaving  home.  By  having  all  of  these  data  recorded  on  the 
folder,  similar  information  on  a  dozen  cases  would  be  decided  alike 
l)y  the  one  working  over  the  data,  whereas  a  dozen  persons  working 
independently  might  have  decided  dififerently  on  each  case. 

The  following  index  numbers  were  used  on  the  verified  history  to 
indicate  sources  of  information : 

A  =1  Statement  of  girl. 

1  =  Information   of   mother. 

(la)  r=  Information  of  father. 

(lb)  =z  Information    of    sibs.      If    necessary    to    differentiate    be- 
tween conflicting  information  of  different  sibs,  the  follow- 
ing distinction  was  used, 
(lb  1)  =  oldest  sib. 
(lb  2)  =1  next  oldest  sib,  etc. 

(Ic)  =  Information  of  other  relatives.  If  necessary,  we  indicated 
in  note  which  relative  was  informant :  grandparent,  aunt, 
etc. 

(Id)  irr  Information  of  husband. 

(le)  :=  Information  of  children. 

2  =  Information    received    by    directly    writing   to   or    visiting   source 

indicated,   as :   "Reached  5B   grade^",   indicating  that  information 

is    from    the    school    record. 

"Worked  Paper  Box  Factory,  6  mos.  $10  a  week-",  indicating  that 

we  have  employer's  record. 

"Arrest   6/5/12.      T.    H.    L.    5    days  2",    indicating   that    we   have 

finger-print  record. 

"Magdalen    Home,   6/5/13 — 6/5/14.     Good   worker   and   behaved 

welF",  indicating  that  we  have  record  from  the  Magdalen  Home. 

3  =:  Information  of  probation  officer,  as  "Worked  Paper  Box  Factory. 

6    mos.    $10    a    week^"',    showing    probation    officer    has    verified 
that  fact,  and  we  are  taking  her  verification. 

(3a)     Parole   officer    (Penitentiary   records). 

(3b)     Detective. 

(3c)     Social  agency. 

4  =:  Information    of    landlady    or    persons    who    have    lived    in    same 

house  or   near  the  girl. 

After  the  completion  of  the  investigations,  and  the  making  up  of 
the  "Verified  History"  folders,  much  of  the  material  was  reduced  to 


METHODS  OF  SOCIAL  INVESTIGATION  83 

code  form  for  use  on  statistical  cards.  This  was  done  by  a  few  per- 
sons working  together,  so  that  the  work  was  uniform.  The  general 
considerations  as  to  the  classifications  used  for  certain  groups  of  facts 
will  be  discussed  later  under  the  chapters  dealing  with  such  facts. 

The  sociological  investigation,  in  brief,  aimed  to  make  an  intensive 
study  of  the  women  delinquents  considered,  not  only  through  know- 
ing the  woman  herself,  but  by  becoming  informed  about  the  en- 
vironment in  which  she  grew  up  and  her  manner  of  living  outside 
the  prison.  A  particular  effort  has  been  made  to  weigh  carefully 
the  information  obtained  concerning  her,  and  to  use  similar  meth- 
ods of  recording  and  summarizing  data  on  all  cases.  This  has  been  of 
great  value  in  making  the  work  in  the  various  groups  comparable  so  far 
as  methods  of  obtaining  and  evaluating  the  material  are  concerned. 


CHAPTER  VI 
NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY 

THE  study  of  the  association  of  various  environmental  factors  in 
the  Hfe  of  a  criminal  with  the  nature  and  extent  of  crime  must 
necessarily  be  preceded  by  a  clear  understanding  of  the  classification  of 
crime,  and  the  measure  of  degree  of  criminality  to  be  used.  Many 
criminal  sociologists  within  the  last  thirty  years  have  made  studies  of 
the  environmental  influences  in  the  lives  of  criminals,  but  have  treated 
their  material  in  a  descriptive  manner,  and  have  assumed  that  the  fre- 
quency of  an  abnormal  environmental  condition  among  a  group  of 
criminals  was  proof  that  the  condition  was  a  cause  of  the  delinquency. 
Often  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  show  how  the  relationship  varied 
with  any  measure  of  the  extent  of  delinquency,  or  with  the  frequency 
of  this  condition  in  the  general  population.  One  of  the  first  difficulties, 
it  must  be  granted,  in  treating  in  mass  form  the  material  in  such  a 
study  as  this,  is  the  inability  to  obtain  comparative  figures  for  the  gen- 
eral population.  Until  such  figures  can  be  obtained,  however,  it  seems 
futile  to  assume  that  the  repeated  occurrence  of  a  condition  within  a 
criminal  group  is  a  cause  of  criminality,  when  it  may  be  a  commonly 
occurring  condition  among  the  general  population  as  well.  Not  having 
the  figures  for  the  larger  group  makes  it  all  the  more  necessary  that 
we  show  the  relationships  of  observed  factors  to  the  degree  of  delin- 
quency and  treat  such  relationships  as  concomitant  with,  not  neces- 
sarily causative  of,  delinquency. 

In  this  study,  a  delinquent  has  been  regarded  as  one  who  has  been 
convicted  of  an  o^ense  against  the  law.  The  measurement  of  the  ex- 
tent of  delinquency  might  be  based  on  one  or  more  of  four  factors, 
(1)  the  age  at  first  conviction,  (2)  number  of  convictions,  (3)  number 
of  terms  served  in  penal  institutions,  or  (4)  length  of  time  served  in 
penal  institutions.  This  chapter  aims  to  give  a  picture  of  the  criminal 
record  of  the  women  in  the  various  groups  studied,  and  will  discuss 
the  nature  of  the  oflfense  committed  by  the  women  at  the  time  of  the 
present  study,  the  advantages  or  disadvantages  in  using  one  or  more 
of  the  above-named  measures  of  delinquency,  and  the  factors  connected 

84 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY     85 

with  the  first  contact  with  the  law.  We  shall  attempt  to  show  the 
relationships  beween  several  of  the  elements  entering  into  the  criminal 
record,  and  shall  use  the  material  in  this  chapter  as  a  basis  for  later 
showing  the  relationship  between  extent  of  delinquency  and  various 
environmental  conditions. 

CLASSIFICATION   OF   OFFENSES 

The  problem  of  classifying  the  offenses  is  no  small  one.  As  Miss 
Mary  Conyngton^  writes, — "the  classification  of  offenses  is  a  complex 
affair.  Going  from  place  to  place,  one  finds  identical  terms  used  for 
different  offenses  and  identical  offenses  described  by  different  terms. 
Thus,  in  one  locality  if  a  woman  is  convicted  of  keeping  a  disorderly 
house  it  may  mean  only  that  a  considerable  amount  of  loud  talking, 
singing,  and  quarreling  goes  on  there  which  makes  it  a  nuisance  to  the 
neighbors.  In  another  it  invariably  means  that  she  maintains  a  house 
of  ill  fame.  'Violation  of  city  ordinance'  is  a  comprehensive  term,  cov- 
ering offenses  which  may  range  from  a  serious  infraction  of  public 
order  to  shaking  a  rug  from  a  front  window.  Obviously  any  attempt 
to  classify  according  to  the  charges  under  which  the  prisoners  are  com- 
mitted would  lead  to  grouping  together  widely  varying  offenses." 
Though  our  study  did  not  cover  convictions  outside  of  New  York 
.State,  it  was  found  that  within  one  state  alone  the  classification  of  of- 
fenses varied  considerably  in  different  localities,  and  sometimes  within 
the  same  city.  In  particular,  the  use  of  "Disorderly  Conduct"  is  strik- 
ing, as  meaning,  even  in  New  York  City,  drunkenness,  soliciting,  at- 
tracting a  crowd  on  the  street,  soliciting  alms,  etc.  In  all  cases  where 
"Disorderly  Conduct"  unqualified  was  given  as  the  offense,  therefore, 
it  was  necessary  to  find  out  from  the  arresting  officer  what  specific 
violation  of  the  law  had  taken  place.  There  are  many  other  instances 
of  vague  and  indefinite  returns  of  offense  committed,  which  necessi- 
tated careful  investigation  of  the  details  of  the  aft'air.  so  that  the  classi- 
fication might  be  as  definite  as  possible. 

The  New  York  City  Police  Department  classification  of  crime ^ 
was  chosen  as  being  the  best  adapted  to  show  the  general  relationships 
in  our  groups  of  delinquent  women.  This  system  of  classification  was 
made  up  on  the  basis  of  crimes  which  had  passed  through  the  New 
York  City  Police  Department,  and,  therefore,  took  account  of  the  local 

'  "Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-earners  in  the  United 
States."  Vol.  XV.  "Relation  between  Occupation  and  Criminality  of  Women." 
By  Miss  Mary  Conyngton.     Washington  Gov't.  Printing  Office,  1911.  p.  16. 

^Police  Department,  City  of  New  York.  Animal  Report.  1916,  pp.  30-64. 


86      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

idiosyncrasies  in  many  laws,  such  as  the  specific  sections  of  a  general 
law  which  might  he  lost  sight  of  in  a  more  universal  classification.  An 
instance  of  this  occurs  in  what  is  commonly  known  as  the  "Vagrancy 
Law."  Under  a  more  general  application,  undoubtedly  many  of  the 
persons  convicted  under  the  general  heading  entitled  "Vagrants"  would 
be  so  classified  under  a  somewhat  miscellaneous  grouping.  To  one 
who  knows  this  particular  law  in  New  York  State,  however,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  very  specific  charges  can  be  made  in  each  of  the  ten  sections 
of  the  law.  The  New  York  City  Police  Department  classification  has 
taken  cognizance  of  the  fact  that  section  1  defines  as  vagrants  those 
who  "living  without  employment,  have  not  visible  means  to  maintain 
themselves ;"  that  section  2  defines  habitual  drunkards ;  that  section  3 
refers  to  those  who  have  contracted  an  infectious  disease  in  the  prac- 
tice of  debauchery,  etc. ;  and  that  section  4  defines  those  who  are  guilty 
of  prostitution  and  soliciting.^  Recognizing  the  sections  of  the  law 
which  are  given  in  the  record  of  conviction,  the  Vagrancy  heading  has 
been  regrouped  into  "Vagrancy  intoxication,"  "Vagrancy  prostitu- 
tion," etc.,  so  that  each  falls  into  the  large  group  where  it  would  prop- 
erly belong. 

TABLE  1 

COUNTIES  IN  WHICH  DELINQUENT  WOMEN  WERE 
CONVICTED 


Institutional  Groups 

Total 

County 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary- 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Num- 
ber 

Per 

cent 

Counties    included    in 
Greater  New  York 

Counties    outside    of 
Greater  New  York. . . . 

67 
35 

57 
31 

74 

2 

110 

107 

2 

102 

517 
70 

88.1 
11.9 

Total 

102 

88 

76 

110 

109 

102 

587 

100.0 

Of  the  group  of  delinquent  women  under  consideration.  Table  1 
shows  that  517  or  88.1  per  cent  were  convicted  in  the  five  counties  in- 
cluded in  Greater  New  York.  The  Police  Department  has  prisoners 
from  each  of  these  counties,  thereby  making  it  possible  to  fit  the  ma- 

'"Code  of  Criminal  Procedure,  State  of  New  York."     Title  VI,  §  887,  sec- 
tions 1,  2,  3,  4. 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY 


87 


jorily  of  our  cases  into  the  details  of  a  scheme  which  was  worked  out 
from  returns  of  convictions  in  the  counties  which  represented  our 
group  most  largely. 

TABLE  2 
KIND  OF  COURT 

Number  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups  and  Number 

and  Per  Cent  Distribution  for  Total,  Classified  by  Kind  of 

Court  in  Which  Convicted 


Institutional  Groups 

Total 

Kind  of  Court 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
hou.se 

Proba- 
tion 

Num- 
ber 

Per 
cent 

1.  Children's  Court. .  . 

2.  City  Court 

3.  City  Magistrates' 

Court 

3 
47 

7 

5 

7 

'     9 

9 

13 
2 

33 
31 

23 

1 
1 

66 
2 

6 

2 

12 
32 

63 

1 

97 
12 

102 

1 
4 

314 
52 

70 

7 
9 
9 

94 
26 

.2 

.7 

53  6 

4.  County  Court 

5.  General    Sessions 

Court 

8.9 
11  9 

6.     Justice  of  the  Peace 
Court 

1  2 

7.  Police  Court 

8.  Recorder's  Court . . . 

9.  Special    Sessions 

Court 

1.5 
1.5 

16.0 

10.     Supreme  Court ...  . 

4.4 

Total 

102 

87 

76 

110 

109 

102 

586 

100.0 

Table  2  shows  the  distribution  of  the  women  in  our  group  by  the 
courts  in  which  they  were  convicted.  The  City  Magistrates'  Courts,  it 
will  be  seen,  have  the  largest  number  of  cases,  with  Special  Sessions, 
General  Sessions  and  County  Court  following.  The  one  case  con- 
victed in  Children's  Court  was  very  nearly  sixteen  years  old,  and 
needed  continued  institutional  supervision,  so  the  judge  committed  her 
to  the  Magdalen. 


88      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

NATURE  OF    PRESENT   OFFENSE 

(a)   Classified  by  Nezv  York  City  Police  Department  Classification 

Table  3  shows  for  each  of  the  institutional  groups  studied,  the 
nature  of  the  present  offense,  classified  by  the  New  York  City  Police 
Department  classification.  The  classification  is  flexible  enough  so  that 
various  offenses  may  be  included  under  either  of  two  or  more  general 
headings  as  necessity  arises  for  doing  this.  Assault,  for  instance,  is 
ordinarily  classified  as  an  offense  against  the  person.  When  the  as- 
sault, however,  is  with  intent  to  commit  rape,  it  becomes  an  offense 
against  chastity.  In  classifying  our  offenses,  not  only  the  offense  of 
which  the  delinquent  was  convicted  was  taken  into  consideration,  but 
also  the  actual  nature  of  the  crime,  about  which  we  were  able  to  learn 
by  investigation.  There  is,  therefore,  no  need  of  falling  into  the  diffi- 
culty cited  by  Dr.  Glueck*  when  he  says, — "there  seems  to  be  no  valid 
reason  for  following  the  legal  classification.  This  classification  is  fre- 
quently not  in  accord  with  the  actual  nature  of  the  crime,  as  is  the 
case,  for  example,  when  a  man  who  has  committed  rape  is  permitted 
to  plead  to  assault.  Furthermore,  the  legal  classification,  already  ex- 
tensive, is  growing  constantly  with  the  addition  of  new  legislation,  so 
that  data  obtained  to-day  may  lose  in  value  by  to-morrow.  It  has 
been  found,  on  the  other  hand,  that  as  a  result  of  the  examination  car- 
ried out  in  these  cases,  a  classification  on  the  basis  of  motive  was  pos- 
sible in  practically  all  instances,  and  the  inception  of  the  motive  could 
be  traced  to  one  of  the  several  fundamental  human,  instinctive  atti- 
tudes." 

With  the  group  of  delinquent  women  studied,  it  was  found  to  be  im- 
possible in  many  cases  to  attempt  a  classification  of  offenses  on  the 
basis  of  motive.  Whether  or  not  the  girl  who  solicits  a  man  and  takes 
him  to  a  "creep  house"  where  he  is  robbed,  is  guilty  of  a  crime  having 
its  impulse  in  the  instinct  of  acquisitiveness  or  of  sex  is  very  often 
hard  to  determine.  Another  type  of  case  difficult  to  decide  upon  is 
found  in  the  history  of  a  Polish  peasant  woman  sent  to  Auburn  for 
twenty  years  for  murder  in  the  second  degree.  Her  husband  was  a 
drunkard  and  would  not  support  her.  Neither  would  he  allow  her  to 
work  and  send  money  to  her  four  children  in  Russian  Poland.  After 
he  had  threatened  to  kill  her  one  night,  and  had  scoffed  at  her  for 
worrying  over  her  children,  whom  she  had  heard  were  starving,  she 

*  Mental  Hygiene,  January,   1918,  vol.   II,   no.    1.     "A   Study  of  608  Admis- 
sions to  Sing  Sing  Prison,"  by  Bernard  Glueck,  p.  92. 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY     89 

killed  him  in  a  most  brutal  manner.  The  next  day,  before  the  mur- 
der had  been  discovered,  she  tried  to  find  work  so  she  could  get  money 
for  her  children.  The  instinct  that  prompted  the  killing  was  difficult 
to  determine,  since,  viewed  from  various  viewpoints,  it  may  have  been 
self-protection,  protection  of  children,  or  possibly  a  "crime  which  had 
its  impulse  in  the  instinct  of  pugnacity."  There  are  other  numerous 
examples  among  the  offenses  committed  by  the  Auburn  women,  par- 
ticularly, which  were  not  easy  to  attribute  to  any  one  motive,  so  that  a 
plan  such  as  that  used  by  Dr.  Glueck  did  not  seem  feasible. 

In  order  to  show  the  relative  seriousness  of  the  offenses  committed, 
a  further  classification  into  felonies  and  misdemeanors  was  used.  Many 
of  the  petty  offenses,  such  as  violations  of  city  ordinances,  which  are 
not,  in  a  strictly  legal  sense,  misdemeanors,  were,  however,  classed  as 
such,  since  we  wanted  to  show  by  felonies  the  type  of  crime  whicli 
may  be  punishable  by  a  state  prison  term  or  death,  and  by  misde- 
meanors the  less  serious  offenses  which  call  for  sentences  in  pri- 
vate institutions,  reformatories,  probation,  etc.,  but  which  can  not  be 
sentenced  to  a  state  prison.  Often  the  distinction  is  only  a  question  of 
degree,  as,  for  instance,  if  a  man  steals  goods  valued  at  $25  from  a 
store  during  the  day  time  he  is  guilty  of  petit  larceny,  a  misdemeanor 
for  which  he  can  not  be  sent  to  a  state  prison.  If,  however,  he  takes 
one  cent  more,  making  the  amount  over  $25,  from  the  home  of  the 
owner  of  the  store,  at  night  time,  he  is  guilty  of  grand  larceny,  first 
degree,  and  may  be  punished  by  a  term  not  exceeding  ten  years  in  state 
prison.  Obviously,  the  distinction  between  the  two  is  absurd,  so  far  as 
motive,  intent  and  real  seriousness  of  offense  are  concerned.  With  the 
cases  which  fall  near  the  dividing  line  of  felony  and  misdemeanor,  it  is 
true  that  any  attempt  at  classification  into  these  two  large  groups  is 
worth  little,  except  in  a  legal  sense.  It  seemed  advisable,  however,  to 
use  such  a  classification  because  the  cases  near  the  border-line  of  such 
a  distinction  are  comparatively  few,  and  because  by  distinguishing  the 
felony  cases,  we  have  material  comparable  to  the  studies  of  men  in  state 
prisons,  as  Sing  Sing  and  Auburn,  which  include  only  felons. 

Both  the  New  York  City  Police  Department  classification  of  of- 
fenses and  the  grouping  into  felonies  and  misdemeanors  have  been 
used  in  considering  the  nature  of  the  present  oft'ense  and  the  first 
offense.  Table  3  indicates  in  detail  the  nature  of  the  present  offense 
for  the  587  women  in  our  study,  and  shows  what  types  of  crimes  are 
included  under  the  general  headings. 

Under  "Offenses  against  the  Person,"  Auburn  Prison  has  delin- 


90      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

TABLE  3 

NATURE  OF  PRESENT  OFFENSE 

Number  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups,  Classified  by 
New  York  City  Police  Department  Classification 


Nature  of  Offense 


Institutional  Groups 


Bed- 
ford 


Auburn 


Mag- 
dalen 


Peni- 
tentiary 


Work- 
house 


Proba- 
tion 


Total 


Offenses  against  the  Person .  .  . 

Abortion 

Assault 

Manslaughter 

Murder 

Suicide,  attempted 

Offenses  against  Chastity 

Abduction 

Adultery 

Associating  with  vicious  and 
dissolute  persons 

Committing  lewd  and  in- 
decent acts 

Compulsory  prostitution.  .  .  . 

Disorderly  house,  keeping. . . 

Exposure  of  person 

Incest 

Loitering 

Prostitution,  general 

Prostitution    in    tenement 
house 

Rape,  2nd  degree 

Sodomy 

Soliciting 

Vagrancy:  contracting  infec- 
tious disease  in  practice  of 
debauchery 

Offenses    against    Family    and 
Children 

Abandonment  of  child  under 
fourteen 

Bigamy 

Endangering  health  and  mor- 
als of  children 


64 


29 


22 


59 


18 
1 

i 

17 

22 


91 


63 

26 


89 


81 


31 


4 

12 
9 
5 
1 

316 


2 
1 

31 

1 
1 
7 
1 
1 
13 
1 


1 

1 

159 


12 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY     91 

TABLE  3— Continued 


Institutional  Groups 

Nature  of  Offense 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

Offenses  against  Regulations  for 
Public  Health  and  Safety .  . 

6 

1 

9 

30 

3 

7 

56 

Habitual  drunkard 

"4 

"i 

1 

2 

i 

1 

1 
4 
4 

'27 
3 

"3 

7 

1 

Intoxication 

11 

Possessing  drugs 

38 

Possessing  and  selling  drugs . . 

Violating  liquor  tax  law 

Yelling  and  disturbing  public 
peace  

4 

1 

1 

Offenses    against    Administra- 
tion of  Government 

3 

Bribery 

"2 

17 

1 
54 

4 

62 

5 

1 

Periurv 

2 

Offenses  against  Property 

Rights 

142 

Arson 

"3 
14 

6 

2 

i 
1 

40 

1 
3 

6 

*"i 

1 
2 

3 

2 

1 

1 
2 

*i3 

41 

1 

"i 
2 

"5 
10 

6 

4 

Breaking  window  while  in- 
toxicated   

Bringing  stolen  property  into 
state 

1 
1 

Burglary 

2 

Extortion 

1 

Forgery    

2 

Grand  larceny 

57 

Petit  larceny 

63 

Receiving  stolen  property .... 
Robbery 

4 
6 

Throwing  stones  at  street  car 
General  Criminality 

1 

27 

Disorderly  conduct,  imquali- 
fied 

"3 
3 

"3 

"2 

5 
2 

"3 

"6 

5 

Disorderly  conduct,  soliciting 
alms 

2 

Possessing  pistol 

2 

Ungovernable  child 

9 

Vagrancy,  imqualified 

9 

Total 

102 

88 

76 

110 

109 

102 

587 

92      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

quents  under  each  one  of  the  sub-headings  listed,  and  contains  the 
more  serious  offenses  such  as  murder  and  manslaughter,  which  do  not 
appear  in  other  groups.^ 

Under  "Offenses  against  Chastity,"  the  distribution  through  all  the 
groups  is  more  general.  But  for  a  few  exceptions,  the  Penitentiary 
and  Auburn  Prison  have  the  more  serious  offenses  of  abduction,  adul- 
tery, compulsory  prostitution,  incest,  sodomy  and  rape.  The  offenses 
in  the  other  four  institutions  fall  largely  into  the  prostitution  offenses, 
including  soliciting,  loitering,  and  violating  the  Tenement  House  Law. 

Among  "Offenses  against  the  Family  and  Children,"  three  types 
of  offenses  occurred  among  our  cases.  Under  the  "Abandonment  of  a 
child  under  fourteen"  there  were  only  two  cases,  one  in  Bedford  and 
one  in  Auburn.  The  Bedford  girl  was  twenty  years  old,  Polish,  and 
spoke  very  little  English.  She  was  of  imbecile  grade  mentally,  and 
showed  her  lack  of  intelligence  in  the  act  which  led  to  her  arrest.  Her 
consort,  the  child's  father,  refused  to  work,  and  she  thought  that  she 
had  to  support  him.  She  knew  she  would  be  able  to  do  more  work  if 
she  did  not  have  the  care  of  the  child,  and  so  she  took  it  to  a  vacant  lot 
near  her  home,  when  it  was  four  weeks  old,  and  buried  it  under  a  pile 
of  ashes.  When  the  child  was  found  several  hours  later,  the  mother 
showed  no  feeling  and  was  willing  to  tell  just  what  she  had  done.  The 
Auburn  case  was  that  of  a  woman  twenty-eight  years  old,  who  with  her 
husband  abandoned  their  four  children  because  they  thought  they 
were  not  able  to  support  them.  Two  of  the  babies  were  left  in  a  hall- 
way and  one  of  them  died  because  it  was  exposed  to  the  rain  and  cold. 
The  other  two  were  abandoned  in  a  store  and  taken  charge  of  by  the 
Children's  Society.  The  Polish  girl  might  have  been  sent  to  Auburn, 
but  probably  because  of  her  youth,  her  foreignness  and  stupidity,  which 
to  a  casual  observer  made  her  appear  innocent  and  frightened,  the 
judge  sentenced  her  to  Bedford.  Ruling  out  the  intelligence  factor, 
her  motive,  however,  was  as  reprehensible,  since  she  intended  to  kill 
her  child,  while  the  Auburn  woman  wanted  to  shift  the  responsibility 
for  the  care  of  her  child  to  some  other  person. 

The  bigamy  case  in  Bedford  differed  in  no  radical  way  from  the 
three  who  were  sentenced  to  Auburn,  except  that  she  was  pretty,  at- 
tractive, and  was  clever  enough  to  make  her  plea  of  her  own  good 

"  The  one  manslaughter  case  which  appears  in  Bedford  was  first  sentenced 
to  Auburn  Prison.  The  two  women  against  whom  she  had  turned  state's 
evidence  threatened  to  kill  her  while  she  was  in  the  prison,  and  so  she  was 
brought  back  to  court  for  resentence  and  committed  to  Bedford. 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY  93 

motives,  but  her  great  gullibility,  carry  weight  with  the  probation  officer 
and  judge. 

"Endangering  the  Health  and  Morals  of  Children"  included  in  the 
Bedford  group  two  women  who  had  been  prostitutes  and  heavy  drink- 
ers for  a  long  time,  but  who  could  not  be  caught  by  the  police  until 
one  day  when  they  were  found  drinking  and  entertaining  several 
women  of  bad  character,  in  the  presence  of  three  small  children.  One 
other  Bedford  case  was  an  Austrian  woman  who  persisted  in  locking 
her  two  small  children  in  her  apartment  for  the  day  while  she  went 
out  to  work,  and  neglecting  them  in  other  ways.  The  fourth  Bedford 
case  was  that  of  a  girl  sixteen  years  old  who  had  sexual  relations  with 
a  strange  man  in  the  presence  of  her  fourteen  year  old  sister.  The 
]\Iagdalen  and  Penitentiary  cases  are  similar  to  the  two  Bedford  cases 
first  noted. 

"Offenses  against  Regulations  for  Public  Health  and  Safety"  are 
supposed  to  include  mainly  the  intoxication  and  drug  cases.  Since  the 
using  of  alcohol  or  drugs  is  never  a  felony,  we  should  not  expect  to 
find  any  of  these  cases  in  Auburn  Prison.  Selling  drugs,  however,  is 
a  felony  and  we  find  one  such  case  in  Auburn.  There  are,  it  will  be 
noticed,  no  convictions  for  drug  using  in  the  Probation  group.  This 
was  determined  by  the  court  in  which  the  Probation  cases  were  studied, 
since  the  Women's  Night  Court  does  not  have  jurisdiction  over  drug 
charges.^ 

"Offenses  against  the  Administration  of  Government"  are  repre- 
sented by  only  two  sub-heads  in  our  group.  The  two  perjury  cases  in 
Bedford  were  both  young  girls  who  had  perjured  themselves  in  court 
but  who  had  been  given  a  chance  on  probation.  The  perjury  charges 
were  brought  against  them  in  the  first  place,  largely  because  there  was 
no  other  charge  on  which  to  hold  them,  and  it  was  felt  that  they 
needed  supervision.  When  they  violated  their  probation  rules  they 
were  brought  back  to  court  and  were  resentenced  to  Bedford.  The  per- 
jury involved  was  no  more  serious  than  is  committed  many  times  a 
day  by  cases  against  whom  no  perjury  charge  is  lodged.  Accordingly 
these  offenses  should  not  be  thought  of  as  being  so  unusual  and  im- 
portant as  they  might  seem  from  their  title  and  the  smallness  of  the 

'  It  is  important  to  remember  that  the  great  bulk  of  intoxication  cases  who 
would  come  under  the  head  of  "^Offenses  against  Regulations  for  Public  Health 
and  Safet}^"  were  omitted  from  our  group.  Had  these  been  included  we 
should  have  a  second  large  sub-division  in  our  Workhouse  group.  In  Chart  I 
the  bar  representing  these  offenses  would  at  least  equal  in  length  that  indicat- 
ing offenses  against  chastity,  these  two  types  of  offenses  making  up  the  great 
body  of  the  Workhouse  population. 


94      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

numbers.  The  bribery  case  in  Auburn  was  that  of  an  old  woman  who 
gave  an  officer  forty  dollars  with  intent  to  influence  him  to  release  her 
from  custody.  Her  case  was  probably  no  more  serious  than  either  of 
the  two  Bedford  perjury  cases,  but  the  age  factor  made  it  obligatory  on 
the  judge  to  send  her  either  to  the  Penitentiary  or  to  Auburn. 

The  group  of  "Offenses  against  Property  Rights,"  we  may  note  at 
the  outset,  is  not  represented  in  the  Probation  group  since  the  Women's 
Night  Court  has  no  jurisdiction  over  such  cases.  The  Workhouse  has 
only  five  cases  and  those  all  of  petit  larceny.  In  the  Bedford  group, 
both  grand  and  petit  larceny  cases  are  found.  One  of  these  grand 
larceny  cases  was  first  sentenced  to  Auburn  but  the  sentence  was 
changed  later  to  a  Reformatory  term.  The  Auburn  group  of  cases 
includes  various  types  of  offense,  such  as  arson,  extortion,  forgery,  re- 
ceiving stolen  property,  and  robbery,  in  addition  to  grand  and  petit 
larceny.''  The  range  of  offenses  against  property  rights  in  the  Mag- 
dalen is  very  small,  covering  only  the  three  offenses  of  forgery,  grand 
and  petit  larceny.  In  the  Penitentiary,  the  range  covers  all  of  the 
offenses  included  in  any  other  group,  except  extortion,  forgery  and 
robbery. 

The  last  group,  called  "General  Criminality"  in  the  New  York 
City  Police  Department  classification,  includes  offenses  difficult  to 
place  in  any  scheme  of  classification.  Such  general  terms  as  dis- 
orderly conduct  and  vagrancy,  with  no  qualifying  statements,  in 
cases  on  which  we  were  unable  to  get  further  information,  could 
not  be  put  in  any  logical  grouping.  "Ungovernable  child"  should 
rightly  fall  in  more  closely  with  a  group  of  juvenile  offenses,  but 
since  the  women  under  consideration  are  adults  we  have  put  the  few 
semi-juvenile  offenses  into  the  miscellaneous  group.  Possessing  a 
pistol  and  disorderly  conduct,  each  represented  by  only  two  cases,  also 
seem  to  fit  into  none  of  the  other  divisions,  and  following  the  New 
York  City  Police  Department  classification  are  treated  as  "General 
Criminality." 

Table  3  shows,  then,  that  the  specific  offenses  under  the  seven 
main  divisions  are  divided  unevenly  among  the  six  institutional  groups. 
We  should  expect  this,  since  the  institutional  groups  we  have  selected 
differ  in  the  kind  of  commitments  permitted  them  by  law.  That  is. 
Auburn  may  receive  only  felonies,  the  \\'orkhouse  and  Probation  only 

'  The  one  petit  larceny  case  in  Auburn  was  an  illegal  commitment,  since  a 
person  convicted  of  a  misdemeanor  may  not  be  sent  to  state  prison.  This 
woman  was  indicted  on  a  charge  of  grand  larceny,  first  degree,  but  pled  guilty 
to  and  was  convicted  of  petit  larceny. 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY 


95 


misdemeanors,  and  the  other  three  institutions  both  felonies  and  mis- 
demeanors, though  the  Penitentiary  has  a  much  larger  percentage  of 
its  cases  felonies  than  have  Bedford  or  the  Magdalen. 

In  order  to  give  in  large  the  main  divisions  of  the  New  York 
City  Police  Department  classification,  Table  4  has  been  made  on  a 
percentage  basis  giving  only  the  totals  of  each  division,  in  per  cent, 
for  each  institutional  group  and   for  the  total  group. 


TABLE  4 

NATURE  OF  PRESENT  OFFENSE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups, 

Classified  by  Main  Divisions  of  New  York  City  Police 

Department  Classification 


Nature  of  Offense 


Institutional  Groups 


Bed- 
ford 


Auburn 


Mag- 
dalen 


Peni- 
tentiary 


Work- 
house 


Proba- 
tion 


Total 


Offenses  against  the  Person .  . .  . 
Offenses  against  Chastity 


Offenses    against    Family    and 
Children 


Offenses  against  Regulations 
for  Public  Health,  Safety 
and  Policy , 


Offenses  against  Administration 
of  Government 


Offenses    against    Property 
Rights 


General  Criminality. 


1.0 

62.7 

5.9 

5.9 

2.0 

16.7 
5.9 


25.0 

6.8 

4.6 

1.1 

1.1 

61.4 


77.6 
1.3 

11.8 


5.3 
3.9 


7.3 
6.4 

.9 
27.3 


56.4 

1.8 


83.5 


87.2 


2.7 


4.6 

9.2 


6.9 


5.9 


Total 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


5.3 
53.8 

2.0 

9.5 

.5 

24.2 
4.6 


100.0 


Chart  1  shows  in  graphic  form  the  percentage  figures  which  are 
given  in  Table  4.  The  most  striking  thing  in  the  chart  is,  first  of 
all,  the  great  irregularity  within  each  group,  and  between  any  two  of 
the  institutional  groups  which  may  be  used  for  comparison.  As  has 
been  stated,  this  is  due  largely  to  the  unevenness  of  distribution  of 
felonies  and  misdemeanors  among  the  main  divisions  of  the  New 
York  City  Police  Department  classification   (See  Chart  3),  and  the 


w     F, 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY     97 

distribution  of  felonies  and  misdemeanors  among  our  institutional 
groups.  It  will  be  seen  at  a  glance  that  the  offenses  against  chastity 
constitute  the  largest  percentage  of  offenses  of  any  one  group,  except 
in  Auburn  and  the  Penitentiary  which  have  the  highest  percentage  of 
felony  cases.  In  these  two  groups,  again,  the  offenses  against  property 
rights  constitute  the  largest  percentage.  The  second  largest  per- 
centage of  offenses  in  Auburn  is  offenses  against  the  person,  made 
up  of  93.5  per  cent  felonies.  In  the  Penitentiary,  offenses  against 
regulations  for  public  health,  etc.,  have  second  place,  and  they  are  made 
up  of  only  7.1  per  cent  felonies.  This  high  percentage  in  the  Peni- 
tentiary may  be  partly  explained  by  the  fact  that  though  possessing 
drugs,  which  is  the  largest  factor  in  the  offenses  against  regulations 
for  public  health,  is  legally  a  misdemeanor,  it  is  considered  one 
of  the  more  serious  misdemeanors  and  is  therefore  punished  by  one 
of  the  more  serious  and  longer  sentences,  i.e.,  the  indeterminate 
sentence  at  the  Penitentiary.  The  Bedford  group  of  cases  which  is 
third  highest  in  percentage  of  felons,  has,  as  might  be  expected,  a 
representation  in  each  division  of  offenses  of  the  New  York  City 
Police  Department  classification.  The  three  groups  of  delinquents 
having  the  highest  percentage  of  misdemeanors,  the  Magdalen  Home, 
the  Workhouse  and  the  Probation  group,  have,  naturally,  few  or 
no  cases  in  the  divisions  of  the  New  York  City  Police  Department 
classification  largely  made  up  of  felons.  That  is,  in  none  of  these 
three  groups  are  there  any  cases  among  the  offenses  against  the 
person  or  against  the  administration  of  government,  and  only  in 
the  Magdalen  group  are  there  a  small  percentage  of  offenders  against 
property  rights. 

(b)  Classified  by  Felonies  and  Misdemeanors 

Table  5  in  connection  with  Chart  2  will  indicate  how  the  in- 
stitutional groups  are  divided  into  felonies  and  misdemeanors. 

As  stated  in  a  footnote  on  page  94,  the  only  misdemeanor  case 

in  Auburn  was  not  a  legal  commitment.     This  one  petit  larceny  case, 

therefore,  gives  a  slightly   erroneous  impression  in  the   graph,   since 

one  would  naturally  expect  to  see  the  entire  Auburn  bar  marked  as 

felony.     Bedford  includes  only   seven   felony  cases,   or  6.9  per   cent 

of  her  total  number.^     The  Magdalen  with  two  women,  or  2.6  pef 

'The  decrease  in  percentage  of  felons  in  the  Reformatory  at  Bedford 
during  the  last  few  years  is  very  marked.  There  have  been  as  high  as  32.2  per 
cent  of  the  Bedford  women,  felons,  but  since  1907  there  has  been  a  steady 
and  consistent  decrease. 


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NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY 


99 


cent  of  her  total  cases,  felons,  indicates  that  there  is  much  less  of  a 
tendency  to  send  the  more  serious  offenders  to  an  institution  which 
is  designed  primarily  for  the  younger  and  more  hopeful  girls.  The 
Penitentiary  with  thirty  felons,  or  27.3  per  cent  of  its  total,  ranks  next 


BEDFORD 

AUBURN 

MAGDALEN 

PENITENTIARY 

WORKHOUSE 

PROBATION 


m^B  FELONIES  I  i  MISDEMEANORS 

Chart  II 

Nature   of    Present   Offense 

Per  cent  distribution  of  felonies  and  misdemeanors  by  institutional  groups. 

to  Auburn  in  having  the  largest  number  of  serious  offenders.  The 
Workhouse  and  Probation  groups  are  entirely  made  up  of  mis- 
demeanants. 

(c)  Felonies  and  Misdemeanors  in  New  York  City  Police  Department 

Classification 

Table  6,  presented  graphically  in  Chart  3,  indicates  what  per- 
centage of  each  of  the  divisions  of  the  New  York  City  Police  De- 
partment classification  are  felons  and  misdemeanants. 

As  discussed  on  page  97,  we  may  note  that  the  offenses  against 
the  person,  a  total  of  only  31  cases,  have  only  two  misdemeanants 
or  6.5  per  cent  of  its  total  number.  The  offenses  against  chastity, 
however,  with  a  liberal  sample  of  316  cases,  contain  310  misdemeanants 
or  98.1  per  cent  of  its  total.  The  group  of  offenders  against  the 
family  and  children,  as  well  as  the  offenders  against  the  administration 
of  government,  have  very  few  cases  on  which  to  base  any  percentages, 
but  as  the  figures  stand,  the  percentage  of  misdemeanants  is  50  per 
cent  in  the  one,  and  33.3  per  cent  in  the  other.     Out  of  56  cases, 


100    bTUDY  OF  W0M1<:N  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

TABLE  6 

NATURE  OF  PRESENT  OFFENSE 

Number  and  Per  Cent  of  Felons  and  Misdemeanants  Classified  by  New 
York  City  Police  Department  Classification 


Felons 

Misdemeanants 

Total 

Nature  of  Offense 

Number 

Per  cent 

Number 

Per  cent 

Number 

Per  cent 

Offenses  against  the  Person 

29 

93.5 

2 

6.5 

31 

100.0 

Offenses  against  Chastity 

6 

1.9 

310 

98.1 

316 

100.0 

Offenses  against  Family  and  Children . 

6 

50.0 

6 

50.0 

12 

100.0 

Offenses  against  Regulations  for  Pub- 
lic Health,  Safety  and  Policy 

4 

7.1 

52 

92.9 

56 

100.0 

Offenses    against    Administration    of 
Government 

2 

66.7 

1 

33.3 

3 

100.0 

Offenses  against  Property  Rights 

78 

54.9 

64 

45.1 

142 

100.0 

General  Criminality 

I 

3.7 

26 

96.3 

27 

100.0 

Total 

126 

21.5 

461 

78.5 

587 

100.0 

52  or  92.9  per  cent  of  the  offenses  against  regulations  for  public 
health,  safety  and  policy  are  misdemeanants.  Next  to  the  offenders 
against  chastity,  in  size  of  group,  are  the  offenders  against  property 
rights,  a  total  of  142  cases,  45.1  per  cent  of  which  are  misdemeanants. 
The  last  group  of  cases,  the  general  criminaHty  group,  has  out  of  27 
cases  all  but  one,  that  is  96.3  per  cent  of  the  total,  misdemeanants.  Of 
our  total  group  of  cases,  461  or  78.5  per  cent  are  misdemeanants. 

(d)   Cotnparison  of  Nature  of  Offense  of  Female  Felons,  and  Male 

Felons  in  Sing  Sing  and  the  Neiv  York  State 

Reformatory  at  Flmira 

Before  discussing  the  extent  of  deblnquency  found  in  the  various 
institutional  groups,  it  may  be  of  interest  to  note  the  comparison 
nf  nature  of  offense  of  the  126  felons  in  our  group  with  the  felons 
as  found  in  two  of  the  institutions  for  male  criminals  in  New  York 
State.  For  this  comparison  we  have  chosen  Sing  Sing  Prison,  which 
may  receive  male  felons  of  any  adult  age  for  any  offense,  and  the 
New  York  State  Reformatory  at  Elmira,  which  receives  only  felons 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY 


101 


sixteen  to  thirty  years  of  age  who  have  never  before  been  convicted 
of  a  felony.  The  figures  chosen  for  this  comparison  are  the  latest 
figures  obtainable  in  the  annual  reports  of  these  two  institutions  and 
include  in  each  case,  the  consecutive  commitments  during  the  nine 
months  ending  June  30,  1916.^  In  the  first  comparison  (Chart  4), 
the  most  marked  observation  is  that  there  is  no  striking  diflference  in 
the  distribution  of  offenses  in  the  two  groups  selected.  It  is  particu- 
larly interesting,  however,  to  note  that  the  female  felons  have  a  smaller 


PER  CENT 


OFFENSES 

AGAINST  THE  PERSON 


CHASTITY 


THE  FAMILY 


REG.  FOR  PUBLIC  HEALTH 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV'T 


PROPERTY  RIGHTS 


GENERAL  CRIMINALITY 


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MISDEMEANORS 


Chart  III 

Felonies  and   Misdemeanors 

Per  cent  distribution  among  offenses  classified  by  New  York  City  Police 
Department  classification. 

percentage,  4.8  per  cent,  of  offenses  against  chastity  than  the  male 
felons  with  8.0  per  cent  of  their  oft'enses  in  this  group.  In  view 
of  the  fact  that  of  the  total  group  of  587  women,  53.8  per  cent  are 
oft'enders  against  chastity,  it  is  important  to  observe  the  difference 
between  the  female  felons  and  either  the  total  or  the  misdemeanant 
group  of  females.  The  female  felons  have  a  slightly  higher  percentage 
than  the  male  felons  in  the  offenses  against  the  person,  the  family, 
regulations  for  public  health,  and  administration  of  government,  but 

°  "Twenty-second  Annual  Report  of  the  State  Commission  of  Prisons." 
1916,  pp.  413-415  and  446-447.  The  offenses  as  given  in  the  report  are  listed 
in  alphabetical  order  with  no  attempt  at  classification.  We  have  used  the 
N.  Y.  C.  Classification  in  classifying  these  offenses,  as  we  did  for  our  group 
of  delinquent  women. 


102     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

fall  slightly  below  in  the  offenses  against  property  rights  and  general 
criminality. 

In  comparing  the  female  felons  with  the  male  felons  in  the  Re- 
formatory at  Elmira  (Chart  5),  the  same  trend  is  shown  as  in  Chart  4, 
except  that  there  are  slightly  more  marked  differences,  especially  in 
offenses  against  the  person,  where  there  is  a  difference  of  10.4  per 
cent  between  the  two  groups,  and  offenses  against  property  rights 
where  the  male   felons   exceed   the    female  by    16.7  per  cent.     The 


OFFENSES 

AGAINST  THE  PERSON 


THE  FAMILY 


ftEG.  FOR  PUBLIC  HEALTH 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOVT 


PROPERTY  RIGHTS 


GENERAL  CRIMINALITY 


FEMALE  FELONS    I  I  MALE  FELONS 


Chart  IV 


m 


Percentage  Comparison  Showing :  1.  Nature  of  Offense  of  126  Female  Fel- 
ons in  this  Study;  2.  Nature  of  Offense  of  839  Male  Felons  Committed  to 
Sing  Sing  during  the  Nine  Months  ending  June  30,  1916. 


difference  between  the  two  groups  in  offenses  against  chastity  is  very 
slight,  only  one-tenth  of  a  per  cent,  which  again  is  of  interest  since  the 
statement  is  often  made  that  the  percentage  of  offenders  against 
chastity  is  much  higher  among  women  in  state  prisons  than  among 
men. 

EXTENT   OF  DELINQUENCY 

In  considering  the  extent  of  the  delinquency  of  the  women  in  this 
study,  the  measurement  used  has  been  for  the  most  part  the  age 
at  first  conviction  and  the  number  of  previous  convictions,  keeping  in 
mind,  wherever  possible,  the  factor  of  present  age,  which  determines 
to  some  degree,  the  number  of  convictions.     That  is,  a  girl  of  six- 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY 


103 


teen  has  had  less  opportunity  to  be  convicted  many  times  than  has  a 
woman  of  sixty.  The  number  of  months  and  the  number  of  terms 
served  have  also  been  used,  but  are  felt  to  be  of  far  less  value  than 
the  number  of  convictions,  since  the  sentences  in  similar  cases  may 
vary  radically,  depending  upon  the  impression  the  woman  makes  on 
the  judge,  while  the  conviction  is  usually  a  matter  of  law,  likely  to  be 
settled  for  all  cases  alike.  The  colored  women,  especially,  would 
have  an  unfair  showing  if  any  measure  of  term  or  length  of  time 


OFFENSES 
AGAINST  THE  PERSON 


CHASTITY 


PER  CENT 
40  60 


THE  FAMILY 

REG.  FOR  PUBLIC  HEALTH 
ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV'T 
PROPERTY  RIGHTS 


GENERAL  CRIMINALITY 


= 

I 

r 

f 

I 

_^ 

1 , 

fc 

. 1 

I  FEMALE  FELONS  C 


3   MALE  FELONS 


Chart  V 

Percentage  Comparison  Showing:  1.  Nature  of  Offense  of  126  Female  Felons 
in  this  Study;  2.  Nature  of  Offense  of  760  Alale  Felons  Committed  to  the 
New  York  State  Reformatory  at  Elmira  during  the  Nine  Months  ending  June 
30,  1916. 


served  were  used,  since  the  facilities  for  probation  of  colored  women 
in  New  York  City  are  so  poor  that  in  most  cases  they  are  sentenced 
to  an  institution  for  the  same  offense  that  would  mean  probation 
to  a  white  first  offender. 

In  this  study,  a  conviction  has  been  interpreted  as  including  those 
who,  in  court,  are  convicted  of  the  violation  of  any  law.  If,  after 
conviction,  a  woman  was  put  on  probation  but  violated  her  probation 
within  a  week,  was  brought  back  to  court  on  a  bench  warrant,  and 
resentenced  to  an  institution,  only  one  conviction  would  be  counted, 
since  the  probation  was  theoretically  only  a  suspension  of  sentence 
for   a   definite  period  of   time.     If,   however,   she   had   been   put   on 


104     STUDY  OF  WOAIEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

probation  for  soliciting  and  while  on  probation  stole,  was  brought 
back  to  court  and  convicted  again  on  the  petit  larceny  cliarge,  this 
would  be  counted  as  a  second  conviction.  Also,  when  returned  to 
court  from  an  institution  to  which  previously  sentenced,  and  resentenced 
on  the  same  charge,  only  one  conviction  would  be  counted,  though 
in  number  of  months  the  first  institutional  experience  would  count. 
If,  however,  she  was  returned  to  court  from  an  institution  for  being 
incorrigible,  etc.,  and  sentenced  to  another  institution  on  a  new  charge, 
this  would  be  counted  as  a  second  conviction,  and  the  first  institutional 
experience  would  count  as  a  term  served,  and  number  of  months 
served.  Time  spent  in  a  jail,  hospital  or  Home  preceding  any  con- 
viction, no  matter  how  long  the  time,  was  never  counted  as  a  term 
served.  Juvenile  convictions  have  been  counted  as  convictions,  but 
juvenile  commitments  to  penal  institutions  as  dependent  children  have 
not  been  so  counted.  To  those  who  may  object  to  including  juvenile 
with  adult  convictions,  it  will  be  of  interest  to  note  the  discussion  at 
the  end  of  this  chapter,  showing  that  only  6.8  per  cent  of  our  cases 
were  convicted  before  the  age  of  sixteen. 

In  this  connection  we  might  note  the  method  used  by  Goring  in  his 
study  of  the  English  convict,^°  in  "gauging  a  man's  degree  of  criminal 
tendency."  He  used  the  three  standards  of:  (1)  age  at  first  con- 
viction, (2)  frequency  of  conviction  per  year  of  freedom,  and  (3)  the 
fraction  of  each  year  of  life  hitherto  passed  in  confinement.  The 
second  and  third  standards  were  obtained  by  noting  the  first  and  last 
conviction  of  each  convict,  and  taking  the  period  of  time  between 
the  two  as  the  length  of  his  criminal  career.  "Next,  the  frequency 
of  his  convictions  to,  and  the  length  of  time  spent  in,  prison,  during 
this  period  between  his  first  and  last  conviction,  is  noted — the  fraction 
of  this  period  passed  in  freedom  being  obtained  by  subtracting  from 
it  the  length  of  time  in  prison.  Finally,  the  number  of  convictions, 
including  the  first  but  excluding  the  present,  divided  by  the  years  of 
freedom,  gives  the  frequency  of  convictions  per  year  of  freedom; 
and  the  years  in  prison,  divided  by  the  total  years  of  his  criminal 
career,  give  the  fraction  of  each  year  spent  in  prison." 

This  method  excludes  all  convicts  who  are  at  the  time  of  the 
study  first  offenders.  Since  259  or  45.4  per  cent  of  the  women  in 
this  study  were  first  ofifenders,  it  seemed  inadvisable  to  use  a  measure 
of  extent  of  delinquency  which  would  at  the  outset  eliminate  nearl) 

"Goring,  Charles.     "The  English  Convict.     A  Statistical  Study."     T.  Fishe) 
Unwin,  London,  1913,  p.  269. 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY  105 

half  of  the  group.  There  are  also  certain  difficulties  in  applying 
such  a  scheme  to  a  group  which  contains  as  many  kinds  of  sentences 
as  does  the  group  under  consideration.  Goring  did  not  have  to 
meet  the  problem  of  an  offender  who,  though  he  may  have  had 
three  previous  convictions,  had  been  placed  on  probation  each  time 
and  had,  therefore,  never  served  any  time  in  prison.  Again,  his 
scheme  makes  no  allowance  for  cases  of  offenders  who  may  be  con- 
victed of  larceny,  sentenced  to  an  institution  and  while  there  become 
so  troublesome  that  they  are  returned  to  court,  reconvicted  as  in- 
corrigible and  sentenced  to  another  institution.  Here  there  are  no 
years  in  freedom,  though  there  have  been  two  previous  convictions. 
The  great  differences  in  sentences  for  relatively  petty  offenses  may 
not  have  had  great  weight  in  a  study  of  English  men  prisoners  twelve 
years  ago.  In  this  study,  however,  there  are  numerous  cases  of  women 
who  have  been  convicted  of  soliciting  at  some  time  and  have  received 
either  probation,  five  days  in  the  Workhouse,  an  indefinite  reformatory 
sentence  of  three  years,  or  in  some  cases,  a  sentence  in  a  Home  for  the 
period  of  minority  which  may  be  as  much  as  five  years.  Such  varying 
sentences  for  the  same  offense  obviously  distort  the  value  of  a  scheme 
which  is  based  on  number  of  convictions  per  year  of  freedom,  or  frac- 
tion of  year  passed  in  prison,  since  the  individual  who  shows  up  worst 
by  the  use  of  such  a  measure  may  be  one  whom  the  judge  felt  could 
be  benefited  by  a  reformatory  sentence.  The  more  hopeless  case, 
on  the  other  hand,  who  was  given  a  short  Workhouse  term,  would 
figure  as  less  criminal  by  this  scheme,  because  of  the  short  term. 

(a)  Number  of  Previous  Convictions 

(1)  Relationship  Bctzveen  Number  of  Previous  Convictions  and 
Age. — It  is  true  that  the  criminal  records  of  these  women  are  in  differ- 
ent stages  of  completion  because  of  their  differences  in  age,  and  that  in 
order  to  make  valid  comparisons,  some  account  must  be  taken  of 
the  age  factor.  The  correlation  between  number  of  previous  con- 
victions and  present  age  is  therefore  of  importance,  both  as  an 
indication  of  the  extent  of  the  direct  relationship  between  these 
two  factors,  and  as  furnishing  a  measure  to  be  used  in  making  al- 
lowance for  age  in  connection  with  other  comparisons.  Table  7 
presents  the  data  regarding  this  relationship.  The  coefficient  of 
correlation  is  found  to  be  .23  with  a  standard  deviation  of  .040. 
This  is  sufficient  to  indicate  the  existence  of  a  genuine,  though  small, 
relationship.     The  correlation  ratios  are  not  appreciably  larger  than 


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PJOO'<3INOitOCCOt»'»'—'X>nC^050MOI^'l< 
t^OOO'C'nif5''5-*"J"«<CO«C<5CS(NlN<N  — •-< 

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S  ^  II  —  E 

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eg 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY  107 

the  above  coefficient,  being  .23  ±  .040  for  age  on  number  of  pre- 
vious convictions  and  .25  ±:  .040  for  number  of  previous  con- 
victions on  age.  Reference  to  the  mean  number  of  convictions  for 
the  various  age  groups  shows  that  there  is  a  clear  tendency  to  in- 
crease in  number  of  convictions  with  age  up  to  about  thirty-three 
years  of  age,  and  that  after  this  there  seems  no  consistent  tendency 
toward  increase,  though  results  are  somewhat  erratic  because  of  the 
small  numbers  in  the  higher  age  groups.  In  any  case,  the  relationship 
between  age  and  number  of  convictions  is  low  enough  to  show  that 
age  is  not  the  sole  nor  even  the  main  determinant  of  the  number  of 
convictions. 

It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  Goring  found  a  somewhat  lower 
correlation  between  age  and  number  of  convictions  for  his  2,225 
men  convicts:  r  =  .1240.^^  This  correlation  coefficient  is,  however, 
not  entirely  comparable  with  ours,  since  he  has  not  included  first 
offenders  in  his  table.  While  we  admit  that  first  offenders  introduce 
a  considerable  source  of  difficulty,  since  these  individuals  represent 
all  degrees  of  criminal  tendency,  from  those  who  wall  never  offend 
again  to  those  who  are  to  be  the  most  confirmed  criminals,  we  have 
not  felt  that  our  problem  would  be  clarified  by  rejecting  from  con- 
sideration nearly  half  of  our  group,  especially  since  it  appears  to  us 
that  the  above-mentioned  difficulty  is  found  in  only  slightly  lesser 
measure  for  second  and  third  offenders,  and  so  on  down  the  line. 
Just  as  the  first  offender  may  either  remain  all  his  life  a  first  offender, 
or  may  go  on  to  accumulate  a  large  number  of  convictions,  so  the 
second  offender  may  remain  only  a  second  offender  or  may  be 
merely  at  the  beginning  of  a  long  career  of  crime. 

(2)  Instiiutional  Differences  in  Number  of  Previous  Convictions. 
— The  distribution  of  the  number  of  previous  convictions,  showing 
the  irregularity  among  the  various  institutional  groups,  is  indicated 
in  actual  percentages  in  Table  8  and  graphically  in  Chart  6. 

Those  who  have  never  had  any  previous  convictions  vary  con- 
siderably between  the  groups.  The  Probation  group  has  the  largest 
number  of  first  offenders,  as  would  be  expected,  while  in  the  order 
of  next  highest  percentage  follow  Auburn,  the  Alagdalen,  Bedford, 
the  Penitentiary,  and  last,  the  Workhouse  with  only  23.5  per  cent 
first  offenders.  The  range  of  number  of  convictions  is  also  of 
interest  among  the  various  groups.  Probation  has  the  shortest  range, 
and  is  followed  by  Bedford,  the  Magdalen,  Auburn,  the  Penitentiary 
"  Op.  cit.,  p.  425. 


108    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


TABLE  8 

NUMBER  OF  PREVIOUS  CONVICTIONS 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in .  Institutional  Groups, 
with  Constants  for  Each  Group 


Institutional  Groups 

Previous 
Convictions 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peniten- 
tiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

0 

38.6 

31.7 

10.0 

11.9 

3.0 

3.0 

1.0 

1.0 

51.3 
16.3 

8.8 
6.3 
3.8 
2.5 
1.3 
2.5 
2.5 
1.3 
2.5 

1^3' 

44.7 

35.5 

11.8 

2.6 

2.6 

1^3' 
1.3 

32.7 

22.7 

15.6 

9.2 

3.6 

3.6 

2.7 

1.8 

1.8 

.9 

';9" 
.9 
.9 

.9 
.... 

23.5 

19.7 

17.7 

9.8 

10.8 

7.8 

2.9 

2.9 

i^o' 
I'o' 

2^0' 

i^o' 

83.3 

45.4 

1     

13. 

2. 

i' 

7 
0 

6' 

22.9 

2   

11.0 

3        

6  8 

4   

4.2 

5   

3.0 

6 

1.4 

7 

1.4 

8 

.7 

9 

.7 

10 

.5 

11 

.4 

12 

.4 

13 

14 

18 

.2 

.4 

.4 

20 

.2 

31 

.2 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

101 

80 

76 

110 

102 

102 

571 

Moan 

1.27 
+  .149 

1.76 
+  .312 

1.03 
±.193 

2.49 
±359 

2.82 
±.387 

.216 
± . 0565 

1.63 
+  .120 

1.50 
+   1 05 

2.79 
±.221 

1.68 
+    1 36 

3.77 
±.254 

3.90 
±.273 

.571 
+ . 0400 

2.864 

(To- 

+  .0848 

and  Workhouse.  The  fact  that  Auburn  changes  place  with  Bed- 
ford in  the  latter  consideration  would  indicate  that  while  there  were 
more  first  offenders  among  the  Auburn  women,  the  recidivists  showed 
a  greater  variability  in  the  number  of  convictions.  The  Workhouse 
in  both  considerations  comes  out  at  the  worst  end.^-  It  is  interest- 
ing to  observe  that  each  of  the  eleven  women  in  the  total  group  who 

''The  Workhouse  group,  as  used  in  these  comparisons,  does  not  include 
the  intoxication  cases,  which  will  be  considered  in  the  next  chapter.  Tf  these 
were  added  in  the  present  comparison,  the  preponderance  of  recidivists  with 
many  convictions  in  the  Workhouse  would  be  greatly  increased. 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY 


109 


have  had  more  than  ten  convictions  have  their  cases  complicated  by 
the  factor  of  excessive  alcoholism  and  previous  convictions  for  in- 
toxication, thoiig-h  the  present  offense  does  not  involve  intoxication. 
The  woman  in  the  Workhouse,  for  example,  who  has  had  31  previous 
convictions  had  eighteen  convictions  for  intoxication,  seven  convictions 
for  disorderly  conduct,  and  six  convictions  for  vagrancy. 

Table  8  gives  also,  for  each  institutional  group,  the  mean  number  of 
convictions  and  the  standard  deviation  which  are  represented  graphi- 
cally in  Chart  6.     This  affords  a  basis  for  comparison  of  the  institu- 


TOTAL 


•-    I- 


Chart  VI 

Number   of    Previous    Convictions 

Per  cent   distribution   by  institutional   groups. 

tional  groups  in  terms  of  both  their  central  tendencies  and  the  amount 
of  dispersion  within  the  groups.  These  figures  are,  however,  insuffi- 
cient, since  we  are  not  able  to  say,  by  mere  inspection  of  the  table, 
whether  a  difference,  which  may  be  observed  between  two  groups,  is 
large  enough  to  be  considered  probably  valid  or  not.  A  certain  amount 
of  difference  in  constants  is  to  be  expected  even  if  two  samples  are 
taken  entirely  at  random  from  the  same  total.  Our  first  problem  is, 
therefore,  to  determine  whether  the  differences  observed  are  large 
enough  to  justify  us  in  considering  the  groups  distinguished  from  one 
another  in  respect  to  this  factor,  viz.,  number  of  previous  convictions. 
The  statistical  basis  for  this  comparison  is  explained  in  Chapter 
III.  In  general  the  method  consists  in  finding  the  actual  difference 
between  the  constants  of  any  two  groups  under  consideration  and 
determining  the  ratio  of  this  difference  to  the  standard  deviation  of 


I     i     I 


BEDFORD 


T     I     I     I     I     I     I 


I     I     I     I 


CONVICTIONS 


AUBURN 


r— t       I     I     > 


CONVlCTtOHS 


rL 


MAGDALEN 


C0NVJCT10NS 


Chart  VI — (Continued) 

Number   of    Previous    Convictions 

Per  cent  distribution  by  institutional  groups. 

1 10 


PENITENTIARY 


WORKHOUSE 


rn   I   n    r 


PROBATION 


I      I      I 


Chart  VI— (Continued) 

Number   of    Previous    Convictions 

Per  cent  distribution  by  institutional  groups. 

Ill 


112     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

the  difiference.^^  Although  no  arbitrary  dividing  line  can  be  laid 
down,  on  one  side  of  which  there  is  certainty  that  a  difference  exists 
and  on  the  other  side  of  which  there  is  uncertainty,  we  shall 
accept  a  ratio  of  2  as  critical  for  practical  purposes.  When 
the  ratio  is  2  or  more  we  shall  feel  a  fair  degree  of  confidence  in  the 
existence  of  a  difference  between  the  two  groups.  A  ratio  of  3  we 
shall  accept  as  justifying  practical  certainty  of  the  difference.  When 
the  ratio  is  less  than  2  the  inference  is,  not  that  there  is  no  difference 
between  the  groups,  but  that  our  data  fail  to  present  convincing 
evidence  of  their  difference.  The  more  closely  the  ratio  approaches 
2  the  greater  the  probability  that  the  observed  difference  repre- 
sents a  genuine  difference  between  the  groups,  even  though  the 
ratio  fails  to  measure  up  to  the  standard  of  probability  which  we 
have  accepted  as  critical. 

In  Table  9  we  present  the  necessary  data  to  supplement  Table  8  and 
make  possible  comparison  of  groups  with  reference  to  their  average 
number  of  convictions.  This  table  gives,  for  all  the  different  pairs 
of  institutions,  the  ratio  of  the  difference,  between  any  two  given 
means,  to  the  standard  deviation  of  the  difference. 

From  these  tables  it  appears  that  the  Probation  group,  with  a 
mean  number  of  convictions  of  .216,  holds  the  lowest  place.  Com- 
parison with  each  other  group  in  turn,  moreover,  makes  it  clear 
that  the  difference  in  favor  of  the  Probation  group  is  to  be  con- 
sidered valid,  since  J^  is  decidedly  over  3,  which  is  sufficient  for 
confident  prediction.  The  mean  of  the  Magdalen  is  next  in  absolute 
size,  and  is  found  to  differ  from  each  of  the  other  groups  except 
Bedford  by  an  amount  large  enough  to  justify  confidence  in  the 
genuineness  of  the  difference.  The  difference  between  the  Magdalen 
and  Bedford  groups,  however,  being  only  .991  times  the  standard 
deviation  of  the  difference,  does  not  justify  more  than  the  assertion 
that  there  is  a  possibility  that  there  may  be  a  real  difference  between 
the  two  groups.  Bedford  comes  next  with  a  mean  number  of  con- 
victions of  1.27.  The  differences  between  this  value  and  the  means  for 
the  Penitentiary  and  the  Workhouse  are  such  as  to  justify  assertion 
of  a  difference.  The  difference  between  Bedford  and  Auburn,  how- 
ever, can  not  be  stressed,  since  ~  is  only  1.44.  Though  Auburn 
and   the  Workhouse   differ   from   one   another,   by   what   appears   to 

"  This  ratio  appears  in  the  tables  as   ^,  where  d  ^=    the  observed  difference 
between  the  measures  and    a^  =  the  standard  deviation  of  the  difference. 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY 


113 


TABLE  9 

NUMBER  OF  PREVIOUS  CONVICTIONS 

Inter-comparison  of  Means  of  Institutional  Groups  in  Terms  of  the 
Ratio  of  the  Difference  Between  the  Means  to  the  Stand- 
ard Deviation  of  the  Difference 


Auburn 

Magdalen 

Penitentiary 

Workhouse 

Probation 

Bedford 

-1.4 

.9& 
2.01 

-3  .  15 

-1.53 
-3.60 

-3.76 
-2.13 
-4.16 
-    .63 

6.60 

Auburn 

4.88 

Magdalen 

4.04 

Penitentiary 

6.26 

Workhous3 

6.67 

Explanation  of  table:    The  number  in  each  space  gives  the  value  for  —  for 

the  two  institutional  groups  designated  at  the  head  of  the  column  and  to  the  left  of 
the  row,  respectively.  A  minus  sign  indicates  that  the  mean  of  the  institutional 
group  at  the  left  is  smaller  than  the  mean  of  the  group  heading  the  column. 

be  a  valid  degree,  in  the  direction  of  a  smaller  average  number  of 
convictions  for  Auburn,  neither  of  these  groups  can  be  distinguished 
with  a  high  degree  of  certainty  from  the  Penitentiary,  whose  mean 
falls  between  that  for  Auburn  and  that  for  the  Workhouse. 

Summarizing,  the  facts  which  seem  at  least  reasonably  well 
established  with  regard  to  the  differences  between  the  separate  groups 
in  the  matter  of  the  criminal  record  as  measured  by  average  number 
of  convictions  are  as  follows  : 

(1)  The  Probation  group  may  be  considered  clearly  differentiated 
from  all  the  other  groups  by  its  small  mean  number  of  convictions, 
a  conclusion  which  was  to  be  expected,  since  one  of  the  prime  grounds 
for  selection  of  a  case  for  probation  is  the  lack  of  a  criminal  record. 

(2)  The  Magdalen  group,  while  having  a  significantly  larger 
mean  number  of  convictions  than  the  Probation  group,  has  a  definitely 
smaller  mean  number  than  x\uburn,  the  Penitentiary  or  the  Work- 
house, but  fails  to  be  clearly  distinguished  from  Bedford. 

(3)  The  Bedford  total  is  clearly  distinguished,  on  the  one  hand, 
from  the  Probation  group,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  from  the  Peni- 
tentiary and  the  Workhouse,  but  is  not  clearly  distinguished  from 
either  the  Alagdalen  or  Auburn. 

(4)  Auburn  shows  a  clear  difference,  on  the  one  hand,  from 
the   Probation  and   Magdalen  groups,  and  on   the  other  hand,   from 


114     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

the  Workhouse,  but  is  not  certainly  distinguished  from  either  Bedford 
or  tlie  Penitentiary. 

(5)  The  Penitentiary  is  clearly  distinguished,  by  its  larger  mean 
nuniljer  of  convictions,  from  all  the  groups  except  Bedford  and 
Aul)rrn,  in  which  cases  the  difference  can  not  he  considered  estab- 
lished as  valid. 

(6)  The  Workhouse  is  clearly  differentiated,  by  its  larger  mean 
nunil)er  of  convictions,  from  all  groups  except  the  Penitentiary.  Be- 
tween the  Workhouse  and  the  Penitentiary  the  existence  of  a  real 
difference  can  not  be  proved.  In  this  connection  it  is  important 
to  remember  again  that  our  A\'orkhouse  group  does  not  include 
the  cases  committed  for  intoxication,  the  average  number  of  convic- 
tions for  which  is  very  large. 

The  comparison  of  the  mean  number  of  convictions  in  the  various 
institutional  groups  may  be  summarized  in  another  way  by  comparing 
the  mean  of  each  group  with  the  mean  for  the  total  of  all  groups.^* 
The  results  of  this  comparison  are  given  in  Table  10  supplementing 
Table  8.  From  this  it  appears  that  Bedford,  the  Magdalen  and 
Probation  are  clearly  distinguished  from  the  total  by  a  smaller  mean 
number  of  convictions,  whereas  the  Penitentiary  and  the  Work- 
house show  a  definitely  larger  mean  number  of  convictions.  The 
mean  for  Auburn  is  so  close  to  the  mean  for  the  whole  group 
th.at  the  difference  might  easily  be  accounted  for  by  chance.  These 
results  are  entirely  in  accord  with  those  obtained  by  the  more  de- 
tailed comparison,  and  have  the  advantage  of  presenting  the  situa- 
tion  more  concisely. 

We  may  compare,  also,  the  amount  of  dispersion  in  the  various 
institutional  groups,  to  discover,  in  the  same  way  as  in  the  case 
of  the  comparison  of  the  means,  whether  the  apparent  difference 
constitutes  a  probably  real  difference. ^^  Table  11  gives  for  the 
various  institutions,  by  pairs,  the  ratio  of  the  difference  between 
any  two  given  standard  deviations  to  the  standard  deviation  of  the 
difference.      The    results    of    this    comparison    may    be    summarized 

"  The  formula  for  the  standard  deviation  of  the  difference  between  the 
mean  of  a  sub-group  and  the  mean  of  the  total  of  which  it  is  a  part  is  given 

by  Pearson  ("Biometrika,"  vol.  V,  p.  182)  as        'j/  |+^'(i_|5^_?^|1=EL' 

where  2  is  the  standard  deviation  of  the  total  and  A'^  the  number  of  cases  in 
the  total,  <7  the  standard  deviation  of  the  sub-group  and  ii  the  numljer  of  cases  in 
the  sub-group.  .1/  the  mean  of  the  total  and  m  the  mean  of  the  sub-group. 

"The    formula    for    the    standard   deviation   of    the   difference   between   the 


standard  deviations  is  as  follows :   q-  = 


-i/  <  +  i 

f  CD  18 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY  115 

TABLE  10 

NUMBER  OF  PREVIOUS  CONVICTIONS 

Comparison  of  Means  of  Institutional  Groups  with  Mean   of   Total, 

in  Terms  of  the  Ratios  of  the  Difference  Between  the 

Means  to  the  Standard  Deviation  of  the  Difference 


Institutional  Group 

Difference  between 
mean  of  .sub-group 
and  mean  of  total 

d 

Chances  that  real 
difference  does  not 
exist  are  1  in: 

Bedford 

-  .39 
.11 

-  .63 
.83 

1.17 
-1.44 

2.29 
.37 
3.09 
2.74 
3.53 
11.33 

91 

Auburn 

3 

Magdalen 

laoo 

323 

Penitentiary 

Workhouse 

509 

Probation 

briefly  as  showing  that  the  differences  in  the  amount  of  dispersion 
in  the  various  groups  may  be  considered  valid,  except  in  the  case 
of  the  comparison  of  Magdalen  with  Bedford,  and  that  of  the 
Penitentiary  with  the  Workhouse.  In  all  the  other  cases  the  ratio 
of  the  difference  to  the  standard  deviation  of  the  difference  is  well 
over  2.  Probation  shows  the  least  variabi'it}-  within  the  group,  and 
the  Workhouse  the  greatest,  the  order  of  variability  being  Probation, 

TABLE  11 

NUMBER  OF  PREVIOUS  CONVICTIONS 

Inter-comparison  of  Standard  Deviations  of  Institutional  Groups  in 
Terms  of  the  Ratio  of  the  Difference  Between  the  Stand- 
ard Deviations  to  the   Standard  Deviation  of 
the  Difference 


Auburn 

Magdalen 

Penitentiary 

Workhouse 

Probation 

Bedford 

Auburn 

-5  30 

-1.06 
4.29 

-3.27 
-2.91 

-7.25 

-8.22 
-3.17 
-7.29 
-    .38 

8.21 

9.90 

7.80 

12.43 

12.06 

Magdalen 

Penitentiary 

Workhouse  . .  . 

Explanation  of  table:      The  number  in  each  space  gives  the  value  for  —  for 

(Td 
the  two  institutional  groups  designated  at  the  head  of  the  column  and  to  the  left  of 
the  row,  respectively.     A  minus  sign  indicates  that  the  mean  of  the  institutional 
group  at  the  left  is  smaller  than  the  mean  of  the  group  heading  the  column. 


116    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  Dia.INQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

Bedford,  Magdalen,  Auburn,  Penitentiary,  and  Workhouse.  It  ap- 
pears, thus,  that  the  groups  having  the  smallest  mean  number  of  con- 
victions have  also  the  lowest  variability,  a  fact  which  is  easily  under- 
stood, since  the  mean  values  of  these  groups  approach  the  lower 
limiting  value  of  )io  previous  convictions. 

The  above  comparison  of  the  groups,  with  reference  to  their  mean 
number  of  convictions,  is  likely  to  be  somewhat  misleading,  since  no 
account  is  taken  of  the  wide  differences  in  actual  ages  of  the  groups, 
with  the  consequent  differences  in  opportunity  for  accumulation  of 
numerous  convictions.  From  the  point  of  view  of  a  simple  de- 
scription of  the  groups  as  they  stand,  such  crude  comparison  is  not 
only  justifiable  but  useful,  since  we  have  a  certain  interest  in  knowing 
how  the  groups  compare  with  respect  to  the  extent  of  criminal  record 
of  their  women,  whatever  the  reasons  for  this  difference  may  be. 
For  example,  it  is  important  to  realize  the  marked  tendency  of  the 
Workhouse  and  the  Penitentiary  to  include  considerable  numbers 
of  old  offenders,  because  of  the  bearing  which  this  fact  would  have 
on  the  sending  of  young  and  impressionable  first  offenders  into  these 
groups.  On  the  other  hand,  the  fact  that  Magdalen  and  Bedford 
tend  to  receive  the  less  extensive  recidivists  should  be  a  reason 
for  considering  well  before  sending  into  this  group  individuals  with 
frequent  experience  of  conflict  with  the  law.  Comparison  of  norms 
and  of  distributions  of  number  of  convictions  is,  therefore,  of  direct 
importance  for  descriptive  purposes. 

When,  however,  we  endeavor  to  make  use  of  the  number  of  con- 
victions as  at  least  an  approximate  measure  of  criminal  tendency, 
it  becomes  of  great  importance  that  we  make  allowance  for  the 
factor  of  age.  In  connection  with  the  present  inter-comparison  of 
institutional  groups  the  fact  that  the  three  institutions  having  the 
smallest  mean  numbers  of  convictions  have  also  the  lowest  mean 
ages^''  may  well  raise  a  doubt  as  to  whether  there  is  any  real  difference 
between  the  groups  with  respect  to  criminal  tendency,  or  whether  there 
may  not  have  been  a  selection  primarily  in  terms  of  age  which  has 
naturally  resulted  in  a  difference  in  the  extensiveness  of  the  criminal 
records. 

(3)     A' umber  of  Prei'ious  Conzncfions  Among  Felons  and  Misde- 
meanants.— It  will  be  of  interest  here  to  make  the  comparison  between 
number  of  previous  convictions  among  those  convicted  of  felonies  and 
^^  For  the  necessary  data  regarding  ages  of  groups,  see  Chapter  VII,  p.  148. 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY 


117 


TABLE  12 

Number   and   Per   Cent  of  Previous  Convictions  Among  Delinquent 
Women  Classified  as  Felons  and  Misdemeanants 


Nature  of 

Offense 

Tot 

al 

Number  of  Convictions 

Felonies 

Misdemeanors 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Number 

Per  Cent 

0 

61 

51.7 

198 

43.7 

259 

45.4 

1 

23 

19.4 

108 

23.8 

131 

22.9 

2 

11 

9.2 

52 

11.5 

63 

11.0 

3 

6 

5.1 

33 

7.3 

39 

6.8 

4 

3 

2.5 

21 

4.6 

24 

4.2 

5 

2 

1.7 

15 

3.3 

17 

3.0 

6 

2 

1.7 

6 

1.3 

8 

1.4 

7 

3 

2.5 

5 

1.1 

8 

1.4 

8 

2 

1 

1.7 

.8 

2 
3 

.4 

.7 

4 
4 

.7 

9 

.7 

10 

2 

1.7 

1 

.2 

3 

.5 

11 

2 

.4 

2 

.4 

12 

1 

.8 

1 

.2 

2 

.4 

13 

1 

.2 

1 

.2 

14 

2 

.4 

2 

.4 

18 

2 

.4 

2 

.4 

20 

1 

.8 

1 

.2 

31 

1 

.2 

1 

.2 

Total 

118 

100.00 

453 

100.00 

571 

100.00 

of  misdemeanors,  as  well  as  to  observe  the  difference  among  insti- 
tutional groups. 

Table  12  shows  that  a  slightly  larger  percentage  of  the  felons  than 
of  the  misdemeanants  are  first  offenders  and  that  the  range  is  slightly 
shorter  in  the  felony  group.  The  histogram  which  follows  shows 
graphically  the  number  of  previous  convictions  among  the  two  groups, 
and  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  seriousness  of  offense  committed 
does  not  have  an  important  relationship  in  our  total  group  to  the 
number  of  previous   convictions. 

Table  13,  supplementing  Table  12,  makes  possible  a  comparison 
between  felons  and  misdemeanants  in  terms  of  the  mean  number  of 
convictions  and  the  amount  of  variations  about  these  means  in  the  two 
groups.  While  a  comparison  of  the  means  alone  would  suggest  that 
the  felons  as  a  group  tend  to  have  been  convicted  somewhat  more  often 
than  the  misdemeanants,  since  their  central  tendency  is  slightly  larger, 


118     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

this  point  can  not  be  safely  maintained  until  we  discover  whether  this 
dilYcrcnce  can  he  considered  valid  or  whether  it  might  have  occurred 
bv  chance.     Since  the  ratio  of  the  actual  difference  between  the  means 


FH- 


P«^ 


Chart  MI 

Number   of    Previous    Convictions 

Percentage  comparison  between  felons  and  misdemeanants 

to  the  standard  deviation  of  the  differences  is  only  .09,  the  chances  are 
even  that  the  observed  difference  might  have  occurred  by  chance.  Ac- 
cordingly, we  are  justified  in  saying  that  there  is  no  demonstrable  dif- 
ference between  the  felons  and  the  misdemeanants  with  reference  to 


TABLE  13 

FELONS  AND  MISDEMEANANTS 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Number  of 

Previous  Convictions  Among  Felons  and  Misdemeanants 

of  Total  Group 


Felons 

Misdo. 
meanants 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that 
real      differ- 
ence does  not 
exist   are    1 
in: 

Mean 

1.65 

±.277 

1.63 
+  .  133 

.03 

.09 

2 

(J  

3.01 
+  .196 

2.825 
+  .0939 

.19 

.85 

5 

(Jn     

Cases   .              

118 

453 

NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY 


119 


their  mean  number  of  convictions."  A  comparison  of  the  standard 
deviations,  or  the  measures  of  dispersion,  of  the  two  groups,  indicates 
a  slightly  wider  scattering  of  cases  in  the  felon  group  than  in  the  mis- 
demeanor. There  is  only  a  possible  difference  in  the  dispersion  of 
these  two  groups. ^^ 

(4)  Number  of  Previous  Convictions  Among  Offenders  Against 
Chastity  and  Offenders  Against  Property. — As  previously  noted,  the 
two  subdivisions  of  the  New  York  City  Police  Department  classifica- 
tion which  are  represented  by  the  greatest  number  of  cases  from  our 
group  are  the  offenses  against  chastity  and  offenses  against  property. 


TABLE  14 


Number  and  Per  Cent  of  Previous  Convictions  Among  Delinquent 

Women   Convicted    of    Offenses    Against    Chastity    and 

Offenses  Against  Property  Rights 


Offenses  Against: 

Number  of  Convictions 

Chastity 

Property  Rights 

Total 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Number 

Per  Cent 

0 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5. 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

18 

20 

31 

155 
71 
31 
16 
17 
10 
3 
3 

"2 

1 
1 

"2 

49.7 
22.8 
9.9 
5.1 
5.5 
3.2 
1.0 
1.0 

'^6 

'^3 
.3 

49 
37 
17 
14 
4 

1 

2 

2 
1 
2 
1 
.... 

.... 

1 

36.0 

27.2 

12.5 

10.3 

2.9 

1.5 

1.5 

1.5 

1.5 

.7 

1.5 

.7 

'".1 

.7 
.7 

204 

108 

48 

30 

21 

12 

5 

5 

2 

3 

2 

2 

1 

1 

2 

1 

1 

45.5 

24.1 

10.7 

6.7 

4.7 

2.7 

1.1 

1.1 

.5 

.7 

.5 

.5 

.2 

.2 

.5 

.2 

.2 

Total 

312 

100.00 

136 

100.00 

448 

100.0 

"  It  is  important  to  remember  again,  in  connection  with  this  comparison  of 
felons  and  misdemeanants  with  regard  to  their  mean  number  of  convictions, 
that  the  intoxication  com.mitmcnts  are  omitted  from  the  misdemeanant  group. 
We  are  convinced  that  if  these  had  been  included,  the  misdemeanants  would 
have  shown  a  conclusively  larger  mean  number  of  convictions.  (See  Chap- 
ter VII,  p.  154.) 

*'  See  Chapter  III. 


120    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

These  two  divisions  which  comprise  78  per  cent  of  our  total  group 
seem  of  sufficient  importance  to  use  for  purposes  of  comparison. 
Accordingly,  we  shall  proceed  to  Table  14,  which  shows  the 
percentage  of  offenders  against  chastity  and  offenders  against  property 
rights  who  have  had  the  number  of  previous  convictions  specified  in 
the  table.  It  would  appear  that  among  the  first  offenders  there  is  con- 
siderable difference  between  the  percentage  of  chastity  and  property- 
offenders,  49.7  per  cent  as  against  36.0  per  cent.  The  range  of  number 
of  convictions  for  the  offenders  against  property  rights  is  also  wider. 
Turning  from  the  frequency  table  above  to  Table  15,  we  may 
consider  whether  or  not  the  difference  seemingly  indicated  in  Table 
14  is  of  any  real  significance.  We  may  note,  first  of  all,  by  comparing 
the  means,  that  there  is  a  tendency  for  the  offenders  against  property 
rights  to  have  a  larger  mean  number  of  convictions  than  the  offenders 
against  chastity.  There  is  almost  certainly  a  real  difference  between 
the  mean  number  of  convictions  of  the  two  groups  of  offenders, 
with  a  tendency,  as  stated  above,  for  the  offenders  against  property 
rights  to  have  more  convictions.  The  difference  between  the  standard 
deviations  of  the  two  groups  is  even  more  marked,  showing  that 
there  is  more  variability  in  the  number  of  convictions  among  the 
offenders  against  property  rights  than  among  the  offenders  against 
chastity. 


TABLE  15 

OFFENDERS  AGAINST  PROPERTY  RIGHTS  AND  OFFENDERS 
AGAINST  CHASTITY 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Number  of 

Previous    Convictions    Among    Offenders    Against    Property 

Rights  and  Offenders  Against  Chastity  of  Total  Group 


Offenders 
against 

Property 
Rights 

Offenders 
against 
Chastity 

Difference 

d 

0-d 

Chances  that 

real  differ- 
ence does  not 
exist  are  1 
in: 

Mean 

2.00 

+  .275 

1.30 
+  .120 

.70 

2.32 

98 

(T 

3.20 
+  .194 

2.121 
+  .0849 

1.08 

5.10 

CO 

(jff 

Cases 

136 

312 

NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY 


121 


(b)  Number  of  Previous  Terms  Served 

In  addition  to  the  consideration  of  the  number  of  previous  con- 
victions as  an  indication  of  the  extent  of  delinquency,  we  may  note 
briefly  the  distribution  among  the  various  groups  of  the  number  of 
previous  terms  served.  Table  16  will  show  this  distribution.  A  term, 
as  we  have  used  it,  may  be  defined  as  a  sentence  of  any  length  of  time 
to  any  Home  or  institution,  as  a  delinquent.  In  comparison  with  Table 
8,  showing  the  number  of  previous  convictions,  it  becomes  evident,  as 
would  be  expected,  that  the  number  who  have  never  served  any  pre- 
vious term  is  always  slightly  larger  than  those  who  have  never  had  any 
previous  convictions,  since  in  each  group  there  are  a  certain  number 
who  have  been  given  a  chance  on  probation  or  suspended  sentence. 
The  difference  is  fairly  large  in  the  Bedford  group,  i.e.,  12.9  per  cent. 


TABLE  16 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Number  of  Previous  Terms  Served  in  Penal 
Institutions  by  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Number  of  Terms 


Institutional  Groups 


Bedford 


Auburn 


Magdalen 


Peniten- 
tiary 


Work- 
house 


Probation 


Total 


0 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

20 

31 

Total .  .  . 

Number  of  cases 


51.. 5 

31.7 

8.9 

4.0 

2.0 

'2'0 


100.0 
101 


57.5 
12.5 
7.5 
6.3 
2.5 
5.0 
2.5 
1.3 
2. 

'2'5 


100.0 
SO 


100.0 
7G 


38.2 

21.8 

14.5 

6.4 

4.5 

2.7 

3.6 

.9 

.9 

.9 

"'.9 
.9 
.9 


100.0 
110 


24.8 

19.8 

16.8 

12.9 

7.9 

6.9 

3.0 

3.0 

i^o 

l^O 


2.0 


1.0 
100.0 


101 


100.0 
101 


53.8 

19.5 

9.3 

5.6 

3.2 

2.5 

1.9 

.9 

.7 

.4 

.5 

.4 

.2 


.2 
.2 

'.2 
.2 

100.0 

569 


122    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

In  the  Auburn  group  we  find  a  difference  of  6.2  per  cent,  in  the  Mag- 
dalen 18.5  per  cent,  in  the  Penitentiary  5.5  per  cent,  in  the  Workhouse 
1.3  per  cent,  and  in  the  Probation  group  8.8  per  cent.  The  Workliousc 
has  the  smallest  percentage,  therefore,  who  have  never  served  a  pre- 
vious term,  and  shows  a  smaller  difference  than  any  other  group 
between  the  number  of  previous  convictions  and  the  number  of 
previous  terms  served,  indicating,  as  will  later  be  shown  in  a  table 
gi\ing  (he  number  of  times  on  probation,  that  the  Workhouse  women 
have  been  given  sentences  to  institutions  more  than  have  the  women 
in  any  other  group.  The  range  of  number  of  previous  terms  served 
is  very  much  like  the  range  of  number  of  previous  convictions. 

(c)  Length  of  Time  Served  in  Penal  Institutions 

If  we  turn  to  the  length  of  time  served  in  penal  institutions,^^ 
the  most  striking  thing  in  the  distribution,  as  in  Table  16,  is  the 
small  percentage  in  the  Workhouse  who  have  never  served  time  previ- 
ous to  the  present  conviction,  and  the  comparatively  high  percentage  of 
those  who  have  served  time  amounting  to  less  than  a  year  altogether. 
This  is  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  at  their  first  sentence,  91.2  per 
cent  of  the  women  in  the  Workhouse  were  sentenced  to  the  Work- 
house, Penitentiary,  or  an  institution  like  County  Jails,  in  each  of 
which,  in  the  past,  a  short  term  was  possible.  Since  the  Workhouse 
has  many  commitments  of  five,  ten,  fifteen  or  twenty  days,  etc.,  it  has 
been  possible  for  many  of  the  women  in  our  group  to  serve  a  large 
number  of  terms,  and  still  serve  altogether  a  comparatively  short  time, 
less  than  one  year.  It  will  be  noted  from  Table  17  that  while  only 
17,8  per  cent  of  the  women  in  the  Workhouse  had  served  more  than 
one  year,  though  the  mean  number  of  convictions  was  2.82,  just  the 
same  percentage,  17.8,  of  the  Bedford  women  had  served  more  than 
one  year,  and  the  mean  number  of  convictions  was  only  1.27.  The 
Penitentiary  wf)men,  also,  with  a  mean  number  of  convictions  of 
2.49,  only  slightly  less  than  the  mean  for  the  Workhouse  group, 
have  29.0  per  cent  of  their  total  number  who  have  served  more  than 
one  year  in  penal  institutions.  The  Probation  group  has  only  two 
cases,  or  2.0  per  cent  of  its  total,  who  have  served  more  than  one  year. 

"  We  should  expect  the  same  percentage  for  those  who  had  never  served  a 
previous  term,  and  those  who  had  never  served  any  time,  since,  of  course,  one 
who  has  served  even  a  few  days  has  served  a  term,  and  conversely.  The 
difference  in  percentages  for  those  never  serving  time  (Tahle  17)  or  a  previ- 
ous term  (Table  16)  comes  from  the  difference  in  the  total  number  of  cases 
on  which  we  were  able  to  obtain  data  for  both  items. 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY 


123 


TABLE  17 

LENGTH  OF  TIME  SERVED  IN  PENAL  INSTITUTIONS 
PREVIOUS  TO  PRESENT  CONVICTION 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institution 

.41,  Groups 

Length  of  Time  Served 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

None 

51.5 
30.7 
7.9 
5.9 
3.0 
1.0 

59.0 
20.5 
7.7 
9.0 
1.3 
1.3 
1.3 

63.2 
25.0 
7.9 
2.6 
13 
. 

39.1 

31.8 

12.7 

9.1 

4.5 

'^9 
1.8 

24.5 

57.8 

12.8 

2.0 

2.0 

i'o 

93.0 
5.0 

I'o 

1^0 

54.1 

Less  than  1  yr 

29.1 

1  yr.    to  2  yrs 

8.3 

2  yrs.  "    3  "     

4.9 

3     "     "     4  "     

2.1 

4     "     "     5  "     

.4 

5     "     "     6  "     

.2 

6     "     "     7  "     

.2 

7     "     "    8  "     

.5 

8     "     "    9  "     

9     "    "  10  "     

.2 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases   

101 

78 

76 

110 

102 

100 

567 

The  comparisons  between  the  three  sets  of  tables  of  number  of 
previous  convictions,  number  of  terms  served,  and  length  of  time 
served  in  penal  institutions,  demonstrate  that  there  is  a  very  consid- 
erable difference  in  the  results,  according  to  whether  one  or  another 
scheme  of  measurement  of  delinquency  was  used.  In  using  number 
of  terms  the  factor  of  length  of  term  must  be  considered.  A  woman 
may  have  served  twenty  terms  but  each  may  have  been  for  ten 
days,  while  another  woman  with  one  previous  term  may  have  served 
ten  years.  Again,  the  number  of  terms  alone  does  not  take  cognizance 
of  the  factor  of  probation  and  suspended  sentence,  which  are  as 
important  from  the  standpoint  of  a  study  in  delinquency  as  is  any 
other  sentence.  The  length  of  time  in  penal  institutions,  in  the  same 
way.  does  not  give  a  clear  idea  of  one's  record  of  delinquency,  since 
the  committing  judge  and  the  kind  of  institution  to  which  he  is  able 
to  send  her  are  so  variable  in  different  communities.  If  a  girl  ap- 
pears hardened  and  brazen,  the  judge  may  commit  her  to  the  Work- 
house for  ten  days  for  soliciting,  but  if  she  seems  young  and  re- 
pentant he  may  commit  her  to  Bedford  for  an  indefinite  term  of  a 
possible  three  years.    Obviously,  the  measure  of  extent  of  delinquency 


124    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

should  not  operate  to  make  the  one  appear  more  and  the  other 
less  criminal,  as  it  would  if  the  measure  of  length  of  time  served 
were  used. 

(d)  Number  of  Times  on  Probation 

To  show  how  much  and  how  variable  a  factor  probation  or  sus- 
pended sentence  has  been  in  the  several  institutional  groups,  Table  \^ 
is  given.  By  the  nature  of  the  group,  all  the  Probation  cases  have  been 
given  at  least  one  chance  on  probation  if  the  present  sentence  is  count- 
ed as  one.  Arnong  the  other  groups,  since  the  present  sentence  is  to 
an  institution,  only  past  sentences  will  be  considered  in  finding  the 
number  of  times  placed  on  probation.  It  is  evident  that  there  is  great 
variability  in  this,  and  that  the  percentage  who  have  never  been  given 
a  chance  on  probation  or  suspended  sentence  ranges  from  63.2  per  cent 
in  the  Magdalen  to  95.1  per  cent  in  the  Workhouse.  In  no  institution, 
except  Bedford,  has  any  woman  been  given  more  than  two  chances 
in  having  her  sentence  suspended.  This  table  becomes  more  significant 
if  taken  in  connection  with  Table  8,  which  shows  the  percentage  of 
each  institutional  group  which  has  never  had  a  previous  conviction. 
The  Workhouse  has  the  smallest  percentage,  23.5  per  cent,  of  first 
offenders;  it  has  the  highest  mean  number  of  convictions,  and  the 
smallest  percentage  who  have  been  given  a  suspended  sentence  of 
any   kind.      This    would    indicate    that    there   is    probably   a   process 


TABLE  18 

NUMBER  OF  TIMES  PLACED  ON  PROBATION  OR  SUSPENDED 

SENTENCE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Number  of  Time.s 
on  Probation 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peniten- 
tiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation* 

Total 

0 

69.3 

20.8 

5.9 

3.0 

1.0 

89.9 
6.3 

3.8 

63.2 

32.9 

3.9 

84.5 

13.6 

1.8 

95.1 
3.9 
1.0 

90'l 
9.9 

66.6 

1 

28.3 

2 

4.4 

3 

.5 

4 

.2 

Total  .  . . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

101 

79 

76 

no 

102 

101 

569 

♦Present  probation  ia  counted  as  one  time  on  probation. 


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125 


126    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

of  selection  in  the  courts  which  sends  these  women  to  institutions 
rather  than  giving  them  another  form  of  sentence.  One  of  the 
most  striking  things  in  the  table  is  the  fact  that  so  few  of  the  women  in 
each  group  have,  as  the  women  express  it,  "been  given  a  chance."  This 
is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  the  adult  probation  system  is  a  com- 
paratively new  thing,  and  that  it  has  not  been  extended  to  any  degree 
to  the  higher  courts  which  deal  with  the  more  serious  offenders. 

(e)  Recidivists  and  First  Offenders 

(1)  Recidivists  and  First  Offenders  Among  Institutional  Groups. 
— To  show  briefly  the  trend  of  extent  of  delinquency  among  the  insti- 
tutional groups,  it  may  be  well  to  divide  the  offenders  into  recidivists 
and  first  offenders.  We  have  used  the  term  "recidivist"  to  mean 
an  individual  who  has  been  convicted  of  an  offense  against  the  law 
more  than  once.  The  kind  of  sentence  after  conviction  has  not 
been  taken  into  account,  since  with  the  development  of  probation 
systems,  it  seems  unfair  to  call  a  woman  a  recidivist  if  she  was 
sentenced  to  prison  by  one  judge,  while  another  woman  with  the 
same  charge  might  be  given  probation  by  a  more  lenient  judge.-" 
Table  19  shows  that  the  percentage  of  recidivists  is  highest  among 
the  Workhouse  women,  and  in  decreasing  order  follow  the  Peni- 
tentiar>%  Bedford,  Magdalen,  Auburn,  and  the  Probation  group. 

(2)  Recidivists  and  First  Offenders  Among  Felons  and  Misde- 
meanants.-— If  we  turn  to  the  number  of  recidivists  among  felons  and 
misdemeanants  (Table  20),  we  find  that  the  percentage  of  recidivists 
among  the  felons  is  considerably  smaller  than  among  the  misdemean- 
ants. It  would  seem  from  this  that  there  is  a  tendency  for  a  larger 
number  of  those  who  commit  the  more  serious  offenses  not  to  commit 
further  offenses.  If  we  turn  back  to  Table  13,  however,  we  find  that 
there  is  no  very  significant  difference,  apparently,  between  the  mean 
number  of  convictions  among  felons  and  misdemeanants.  From  this, 
it  would  seem  that  the  recidivists  among  the  felons  tend  to  have  a 
larger  percentage  of  convictions  than  the  recidivists  among  the  mis- 
demeanants. 

^  It  is  obvious,  of  course,  that  there  are  marked  limitations  to  the  use  of 
"recidivist"  as  one  who  has  been  previously  convicted  by  law.  We  might  note 
here  the  case  of  one  Bedford  woman  32  years  old  who  had  been  a  prostitute 
in  Chinatown  for  years  and  had  smoked  opium  for  some  time.  She  had  vio- 
lated the  law,  undoubtedly,  nearly  every  day  during  this  time.  She  was  not 
arrested,  however,  because  of  her  own  cleverness  and  the  protection  of  her 
pimp,  until  she  was  sentenced  to  Bedford.  Legally,  she  is  a  first  offender,  but 
in  every  other  sense  of  the  word  she  has  violated  the  law  for  years. 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY 

TABLE  20 

RECIDIVISTS  AND  FIRST  OFFENDERS 

Number  and  Per  Cent  Among  Felons  and  Misdemeanants 


127 


Fel 

ons 

Misdemeanants 

Total 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Recidivists 

First  Offenders 

57 
60 

48.7 
51.3 

251 
189 

57.0 

43.0 

308 
249 

55.3 

44.7 

Total 

117 

100.0 

440 

100.0 

557 

100.0 

(3)  Recidivists  and  First  Offenders  Among  Female  Felons  and 
Male  Felons. — It  may  be  of  interest  to  compare  with  the  felons  in  our 
group  the  percentage  of  recidivists  which  Dr.  Glueck  found  in  a  study 
of  608  male  felons  in  Sing  Sing  Prison.^^  Among  his  total  group,  he 
finds  66.8  per  cent  recidivists  in  comparison  with  the  48.7  per  cent  of 
the  female  felons  of  our  study.  Dr.  Glueck  has  defined  a  recidivist  as 
"an  individual  who  in  addition  to  his  present  term  of  imprisonment,  has 
served  one  or  more  previous  sentences  in  penal  or  reformatory  in- 
stitutions." Since  he  has  not  based  recidivism  on  number  of  previous 
convictions,  as  we  have,  it  is  probably  true  that  he  has  not  counted 
as  recidivists  many  who  would  be  so  counted  in  our  classification 
and,  therefore,  that  the  difiference  between  the  percentage  of  recidivists 
in  the  two  groups  is  larger  than  would  appear.  Even  as  the  two 
stand,  the  difference  is  rather  striking,  that  there  should  be  18.1 
per  cent  more  recidivists  among  the  male  than  among  the  female 
felon  group. 

A  further  comparison  of  the  recidivists  and  first  offenders  in 
our  felony  group  with  200  consecutive  admissions  of  male  felons  to 
Auburn  Prison^-  shows  that  the  recidivists  among  these  male  felons 
are  67.5  per  cent  of  the  total  group,  and  the  first  offenders  32.5 
per  cent.  These  percentages  approximate  those  among  the  male 
felons  in  Sing  Sing  Prison  and  show,  again,  a  much  larger  per- 
centage of  recidivists  than  we  find  among  the  female  felons  in  our 
group. 

"  Op.  cit,  p.  140. 

"These  unpublished  figures  were  obtained  through  the  courtesy  of  Dr. 
Heacox,  physician  in  Auburn  Prison. 


128    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

FIRST  CONTACTS   WITH   THE  LAW 

Equally  as  important  as  a  study  of  the  extent  of  delinquency 
is  a  knowledge  of  the  circumstances  which  attended  the  first  con- 
tacts with  the  law.  We  have  three  groups  of  facts  which  serve  in 
a  general  way  to  supply  this  information, — namely,  the  age  at  first 
conviction,  the  nature  of  the  ofifense  at  the  first  conviction,  and  the 
first  sentence. 

(a)  /Ige  at  First  Conviction 

(1)  Age  at  First  Conviction  .Iniong  Institutional  Groups. — Table 
21  shows  the  per  cent  distribution  of  delinquent  women  in  the  vari- 
ous groups  by  the  age  at  first  conviction.  Where  there  has  been 
no  previous  conviction,  present  age  is  used.  Each  age,  given  in 
round  numbers  in  years,  includes  the  time  between  6  months  pre- 
vious to  and  6  months  following  that  birthday.  That  is,  21  years 
as  given  in  this  study,  includes  ofifcnders  who  at  the  time  of  the 
present  conviction  were  of  any  age  between  20  years,  6  months,  and 
21  years,  6  months.  The  range  of  years  in  the  total  group  runs 
from  8  to  72.  There  was  only  one  woman,  in  the  Probation  group, 
who  was  convicted  at  8  years,  and  she  as  an  incorrigible  child. 
The  only  case  at  72  years  was  a  woman  in  the  Workhouse.  The 
range  varies  in  the  institutional  groups,  having  a  wide  range  in 
the  Workhouse,  Auburn,  and  the  Penitentiary,  and  a  progressively 
narrower  range  in  the  Probation,  Magdalen,  and  Bedford  groups.  The 
latter  two,  by  the  laws  regulating  the  ages  of  the  inmates,  could  not 
take  the  very  old  cases  which  we  find  in  the  Workhouse,  for  instance. 
We  may  note  that  the  lowest  mean  and  standard  deviation,  for  the 
age  at  first  conviction,  occurs  in  Bedford,  and  becomes  increasingly 
larger  in  the  Magdalen,  Probation  and  the  Penitentiary.  Auburn 
follows  next  in  the  mean  age  and  the  Workhouse  has  the  highest 
mean  age.  The  standard  deviations  of  these  two  groups  is  reversed, 
however,  the  Workhouse  showing  a  less  wide  dispersion  of  ages  than 
which  will  be  used  for  several  correlations,  we  find  the  mean  age  at 
wide  range  of  ages,  such  as  the  Workhouse,  Penitentiary,  and  Auburn, 
we  should  expect  a  large  standard  deviation.  In  the  total  group, 
which  will  be  used  for  several  correlations,  we  find  the  mean  age  at 
first  conviction  27.51  ±  .453,  and  the  standard  deviation  10.68 
d=   .321. 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY 


129 


TABLE  21 

AGE  AT  FIRST  CONVICTION 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups, 
with  Constants  for  Each  Group 


Institutional  Groups 

Age  at  Firs 

t 

Total 

Conviction 

Peniten- 

Work- 

Bpclford 

Auburn 

Magdf 

len         tiary 

hou.^e 

Probation 

8  to  12ye< 

irs        1.0 

1.3 

1.3 

1.1 

0.7 

12    "    16      ' 

8.9 

1.3 

4.0 

4.6 

2.0 

2.2 

4.0 

16    "    20      ' 

47 . 5 

14.1 

39.5 

3.7 

8.2 

20.7 

21.7 

20    "    24      ' 

23.8 

12.8 

27.6 

19.3 

13.3 

28.3 

20.8 

24    "    28      ' 

11.9 

15.4 

15.8 

18.4 

16.3 

25.0 

17.2 

28    "    32      ' 

4.0 

9.0 

6.6 

18.4 

9.2 

15.2 

10.7 

32    "    36      ' 

3.0 

12.8 

4.0 

8.3 

19.4 

2.2 

8.3 

36    "    40      ' 

9.0 

1.3 

11.0 

8.2 

1.1 

5.2 

40    "    44      ' 

12.8 

6.4 

9.2 

2.2 

5.1 

44    "    48      ' 

2.6 

1.8 

5.1 

2.2 

2.0 

48    "    52      ' 

1.3 

3.7 

4.1 

1.6 

52    "    56      ' 

5.1 

2.0 

1.1 

56    "    60      ' 

3.7 

1.0 

.9 

60    "    64      ' 

1.3 

.9 

1.0 

.5 

64    "    68      ' 

1.3 

.2 

68    "    72      ' 

1.0 

'  .2 

Total . 

...  100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  a 

ises  101 

78 

76 

109 

98 

92 

554 

Mean 

H 

).58 
.450 

31.1 
±1.29 

21.21 

±.5e 

)        30.41 
)9      ±.971 

32.1 
±1.10 

23.96 
±.657 

27.51 

Cm 

.  .  .     + 

±.453 

a 

4 

L52 
.318 

11.41 
±.914 

4.9C 
±.4C 

.        10.13 
)2       ±.686 

10.84 

±.775 

6.30 

±.464 

10.68 

a  a 

..  .     + 

+  .321 

(2)  Comparison  with  English  Male  Convicts. — It  is  of  some  inter- 
est to  compare  the  figures  for  our  group  of  delinquent  women  with 
Goring's  data  for  English  men  convicts,  although  his  carry  more 
weight  because  of  the  greater  numbers.  He  gives  ~'^  the  means  and 
standard  deviations  of  the  age  at  first  conviction,  for  2,225  men,  first 
offenders  being  omitted  from  the  numbers.  From  these  data  we  com- 
puted the  standard  deviation  of  the  mean.  His  constants  are  as 
follows : 

Mean  age  at  first  conviction  ^  22.39  ±  .194. 

Standard   deviation   of   age  at   first   conviction  =  9.172. 


Of.  cit.    Table  285.  d.  424. 


130     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

Our  data,  as  given  in  Table  21,  are  not  comparable  with  Goring's, 
since  we  have  included  first  offenders.  Dropping  these  cases  we 
find  the  following  constants  for  304  cases,  all  of  whom  have  been 
convicted  at  least  once  before  the  present  conviction. 


Mean  age  at  first  conviction  =  25.41  ±  .540. 
Standard  deviation  of  age  at  first   conviction 


9.420. 


Between  the  mean  age  at  first  conviction  of  Goring's  group  of 
men  and  that  of  our  group  of  women  there  is  a  difference  of  3.02 
years — more  than  five  times  the  standard  deviation  of  the  difference — 
which  is  sufficient  to  remove  any  uncertainty  as  to  the  genuineness 
of  the  difference.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  men  studied  by 
Goring  tended  to  have  been  convicted  for  the  first  time  earlier 
than  were  our  women.  Whether  this  indicates  a  tendency  common 
to  men  criminals  as  contrasted  with  women ;  whether  it  is  due  to 
differences  in  conditions  between  England  and  this  country ;  or 
whether  it  is  due  to  some  peculiarity  in  the  selection  of  the  groups, 
we  can  not  say.  It  is  evidently  not  due  simply  to  the  fact  that 
his  group  consists  entirely  of  felons,  while  ours  includes  both  felons 


TABLE  22 

AGE  AT  FIRST  CONVICTION 

Per   Cent  Distribution   of   Felons   and   Misdemeanants 


Age  at  First  Conviction 

Felons 

Misdemeanants 

Total 

8  to  12  years 

.9 

2.6 

12.2 

16.5 

17.4 

11.3 

10.4 

7.8 

9.6 

1.7 

1.7 

3.5 

1.7 

1.7 

.9 

.7 

4.3 

24.1 

21.8 

17.3 

10.5 

7.7 

4.6 

3.9 

2.1 

1.6 

.5 

.7 

.2 

'".2 

.7 

4.0 

21.6 

20.7 

17.3 

10.6 

8.3 

5.2 

5.0 

2.0 

1.6 

1.1 

.9 

.5 

.2 

.2 

12   "    16      "    

16   "   20     "    

20    "    24      "    

24    "    28      "     

28    "    32      "    

32    "    36      "    

36    "    40      "    

40    "    44      "    

44    "    48      "    

48    "    52      "    

52    "    56      "    

56    "    60      "    

60    "    64      "     

64    "    68      "    

68    "    72      "    

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases ; 

115 

440 

555 

NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY 


131 


and  misdemeanants,  since  the  mean  age  of  first  conviction  of  the 
women  felons  (see  Table  22>)  is  higher  than  that  of  the  women 
misdemeanants.  The  discrepancy  between  our  group  and  Goring's 
would  thus  be  increased  rather  than  diminished  if  comparison  were 
made  with  the  women  felons  alone, 

(3)  Age  at  First  Conviction  Among  Felons  and  Misdemeanants. 
— If  we  proceed  to  the  consideration  of  age  at  first  conviction  as 
found  among  the  felon  and  misdemeanant  groups,  we  note  that  the 
range  of  ages  is  about  the  same  in  each  group. 

Table  23,  however,  which  compares  the  means  and  standard 
deviations  of  the  age  at  first  conviction  in  the  two  groups,  shows  that 
there  is  a  real  difference  between  the  central  tendency  of  the  two 
groups  in  favor  of  the  felons  being  first  convicted  at  an  older  age. 
There  is  also  in  all  probability  a  valid  difference  between  the  dis- 
persion in  the  two  groups,  with  a  tendency  toward  a  wider  scattering 
among  the  felons  in  the  age  at  first  conviction. 


TABLE  23 

FELONS  AND  MISDEMEANANTS 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Age  at  First  Con- 
viction of  Felons  and  Misdemeanants  of  Total  Group 


Felons 

Misde- 
meanants 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that 

real  differ- 
ence does  not 
exist  are  1 
in: 

Mean 

30.3 
±1.07 

25.51 

±.438 

4.84 

4.19 

71,943 

Cm 

(T 

11.45 

±.755 

9.20 
±.310 

2.25 

2.76 

345 

(Tn- 

Cases 

115 

440 

(4)  Age  at  First  Conviction  Among  Offenders  Against  Chastity 
and  Offenders  Against  Property  Rights. — The  two  largest  groups  of 
delinquents  in  the  New  York  City  Police  Department  classification  of 
offenders, — the  offenders  against  chastity  and  the  offenders  against 
property  rights, — are  of  interest  also  in  a  consideration  of  the  age  at 
first  conviction.  The  frequency  distribution  in  Table  24  indicates  that 
the  range  is  somewhat  shorter  for  both  groups,  than  in  the  total  group, 


132     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

since  the  two  last  age  groups  are  lost,  and  only  three  cases  fall  in  the 
first  age  group. 

Table  25  gives  the  comparison  of  the  means  and  standard  devia- 
tions of  the  above  table,  and  shows  that  there  is  a  valid  difference 
between  the  means, — that  is,  that  there  is  a  tendency  for  the  women 
convicted  of  offenses  against  chastity  to  be  first  convicted  younger 
than  the  women  convicted  of  offenses  against  property  rights.  There 
is  much  less  of  a  difference  in  the  dispersion  of  the  cases  among  these 
two  groups  of  offenders,  but  the  ratio  of  1.96  would  indicate  that 
there  might  be  a  difference.  It  is  of  interest  here  to  turn  back  to  Table 
15,  and  note  the  tendency  for  women  convicted  of  offenses  against 
I)roperty  rights  to  have  a  greater  number  of  convictions  than  women 
convicted  of  offenses  against  chastity.  Table  14  shows  that  there  is 
a  larger  percentage  of  recidivists  also  among  those  who  are  convicted 
of  offenses  against  property  rights.  All  of  these  facts  together  would 
make  it  seem  probable  that  the  offenders  against  property  rights, 
though  first  convicted  at  a  later  age,  are  convicted  more  often  after 
that  time  than  are  the  offenders  against  chastity. 


TABLE  24 

AGE  AT  FIRST  CONVICTION 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Offenders  Against  Chastity  and  Offenders 
Against  Property  Rights 


Age  at  First  Conviction 

Offenders  against 
Chastity 

Offenders  against 
Property 

Total 

8  to   12  years 

1.0 
3.0 

28.6 

21.6 

IS. 9 

S.6 

7.3 

3.3 

3  3 

1.3 

1.3 

.7 

.7 

.3 

'6'7' 

11.2 

20.9 

15  7 

14.9 

8.2 

7.5 

,    7.5 

1.5 

2.2 

1.5 

1.5 

.8 

.7 

12    "    16      "     

4.1 

16    "    20      "     

23.2 

20    "    24      "     

21.4 

24    "    28      "    

17.9 

28    "    32      "     

10.6 

32    "    36      "     

7.6 

36    "    40      "     

4.6 

40    "    44      "     

4.6 

44    "    48      "     

1.4 

48    "    52      "     

1.6 

52    "    56      "     

.9 

56    "    60      "     

.9 

60    "    64      "     

.5 

Total ...    . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

301 

134 

435 

NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY 


133 


TABLE  25 

OFFENDERS  AGAINST  PROPERTY  RIGHTS  AND  OFFENDERS 
AGAINST  CHASTITY 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Age  at  First 

Conviction  Among  Offenders  Against  Property  Rights  and 

Offenders  Against  Chastity  of  Total  Group 


Offenders 
against 

Property 
Rights 

Offenders 
against 
Chastity 

Difference 

d 
o-d 

Chances  that 

real  differ- 
ence does  not 
exist  are  1 
in: 

Mean 

CTm 

28.31 

±.871 

24.70 
+  .501 

3.62 

3.60 

5,000 

0" 

10.09 
±.616 

8.70 
±  ,  354 

1.39 

1.96 

40 

(Ta^ 

Cases  

134 

301 

(5)  Relation  Betzveen  Age  at  First  Conviction  and  Number  of 
Convictions. — In  order  to  determine  whether  among  our  total  group  of 
delinquent  women  there  is  any  relationship  between  age  at  first  con- 
viction and  the  total  number  of  convictions,-*  the  following  correlation 
table  (Table  26)  is  presented.  We  find  that  the  coefficient  of  correla- 
tion, -|-.02  gives  no  evidence  of  any  significant  relationship.  Cor- 
relation ratios  were  also  determined  which  indicated  the  presence  of 
a  slight  degree  of  relationship,  but  which  are  rendered  of  dubious  sig- 
nificance by  the  irregularity  in  the  lines  of  means.  (See  table, 
noting  the  means  given  in  the  right-hand  column  and  the  bottom  row  of 
the  table.)  This  can  not  be  considered  an  adequate  indication  of  the 
amount  of  correlation  without  a  correction  for  the  influence  of  present 
age.  While  we  should  expect  a  tendency  for  individuals  who  were  first 
convicted  when  very  young  to  acquire  a  larger  number  of  convictions 
than  those  first  convicted  late  in  life,-^  it  is  evident  that,  if  any  large 
number  of  those  who  had  their  first  convictions  at  an  early  age  are  still 
relatively  young,  this  tendency  will  not  have  an  opportunity  to  show 
itself  to  its  full  degree. 

**  Our  heading  "Number  of  prcz'ions  convictions"  tends  to  be  misleading  in 
this  connection,  the  term  "previous"  signifying  "previous  to  the  present,"  obvi- 
ously not  "previous  to  the  first." 

"  Our  expectation  is  based  obviously  on  the  assumption  that  the  treatment 
given  at  the  time  of  the  first  conviction  is  not  likely  to  cut  short  the  career 
of  delinquency. 


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NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY  135 

To  show  the  relationship  between  age  at  first  conviction  and  total 
number  of  convictions  cleared  of  the  influence  of  age,  we  have  de- 
termined the  i)artial  correlation  coefficient  of  age  at  first  conviction  and 
number  of  "previous"  convictions  for  constant  age  ^'^  which  is  as  fol- 
lows :  riN.A  =  —  .619  ±:  .072.  Although  the  size  of  the  partial 
coefficient  is  affected  by  the  smallness  of  r,  which  can  not  be  consid- 
ered a  wholly  reliable  value  in  view  of  the  non-linearity  of  the  rela- 
tionship, it  remains  true  that,  even  were  r  as  large  as  either  of  the 
r]'s,  the  partial  would  still  be  large  enough  to  be  significant  and  would 
be  negative  in  sign.  In  other  words,  data  on  the  group  under  consider- 
ation indicate  clearly  that  the  earlier  the  first  conviction  the  greater 
the  likelihood  of  many  convictions. 

It  is  easier,  however,  to  determine  the  fact  of  the  relationship  than 
to  account  for  it.  There  are  several  fairly  obvious  explanations.  The 
first  is  the  simple  fact  that  one  convicted  early  has  a  longer  period  of 
time  ahead  of  him  in  which  to  accumulate  a  criminal  record.  Less 
superficial  is  the  assumption  that  an  early  conviction  is  symptomatic 
of  a  marked  criminal  tendency,  or,  if  one  objects  to  the  implications 
of  this  term,  at  least  of  a  combination  of  characteristics  which  makes 
the  individual  particularly  susceptible  to  pernicious  influences.  Still 
another  explanation  might  be  offered  on  the  assumption  that  the  in- 
fluences of  the  courts  and  the  penal  institutions  may  be  so  unfortunate 
in  their  efifect  upon  the  young  delinquent  that  they  exaggerate,  rather 
than  diminish,  his  criminal  susceptibility.  We  do  not  pretend  to  de- 
cide as  to  which  of  the  above  explanations  is  the  more  probable. 
Very  possibly  each  factor  suggested  is  operative  to  some  degree. 

(b)  Nature  of  First  Offense 

The  nature  of  the  first  offense  committed  has  been  classified,  as  was 
the  present  offense,  by  the  New  York  City  Police  Department  classi- 
fication, and  by  felonies  and  misdemeanors.  The  first  classification 
as  given  in  Table  27  may  be  best  interpreted  in  connection  with  Table 
4,  giving  the  nature  of  the  present  ofYense.  It  will  be  noted  that  the 
first  offense  still  has  its  highest  percentage  in  the  group  of  offenders 

^The  data  required  for  the  above  partial  correlation  are  as  follows: 

Correlation  coefificient  of  age  at  first  conviction  and  number  of  "previous" 
convictions  :    rm  =  .02. 

Correlation  coefficient  of  age  at  first  conviction  and  present  age :      Tia  =  .942. 

Correlation  coefficient  of  number  of  "previous"  convictions  and  present  age : 
Tna  =  .23. 

The  formula  for  the  partial  is  rm.A  = — .  — -, 

V  I — r  naV  I — r  lA 


136    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

TABLE  27 

NATURE  OF  FIRST  OFFENSE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups, 

Classified  by  Main  Divisions  of  New  York  City  Police 

Department  Classification 


Institutional  Groups 

Nature  of  Offense 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

Offenses  against  the  Person .... 

Offenses  against  Chastity 

Offenses    against    Family    and 
Children 

1.0 

49.5 
5.0 

6.9 

1.0 

11.0 
25.7 

17.9 
20.5 

5.1 

5.1 
1.3 

42.3 

7.7 

63.2 

9.2 

7.9 
19.7 

5.6 
13.1 

.9 
12.1 

47.7 
20.6 

42.4 

9.1 

2.0 
46.5 

81.5 

6.5 

1.1 
10.9 

3.8 
44.3 

1.8 

Offenses  against  Regulations  for 
Public  Health,  Safety  and 
Policy 

8.3 

Offenses  against  Administration 
of  Government 

.4 

Offenses    against    Property 
Rights 

18.8 

General  Criminality 

22.6 

Total .- 

100. 0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

101 

78 

76 

107 

99 

92 

553 

against  cha.stity,  but  that  the  general  criminality  group  takes  second 
place.  This  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  fact  that  the  charges  of  in- 
corrigible and  ungovernable  child,  and  the  semi-juvenile  offenses  come 
in  this  general  group.  Offenses  against  property  rights  have  third 
highest  place  instead  of  second  place  as  among  the  present  offenses. 
Among  the  other  four  divisions  of  offenses  there  are  slight  but  not 
noticeably  large  dift'erences  from  the  nature  of  the  present  offense. 

The  nature  of  the  first  offense  as  classified  by  felonies  and  mis- 
demeanors is  also  only  very  slightly  different  from  the  percentage  of 
felonies  and  misdemeanors  at  the  time  of  the  present  offense.  The 
only  group  which  changes  more  than  one  per  cent  is  Auburn  which  has 
29  women  or  37.2  per  cent  who  were  misdemeanants  at  the  time  of  the 


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NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY  139 

first  conviction,  and  only  one  misdemeanant  at  the  latest  conviction.  It 
is  also  of  interest  to  note  that  in  neither  the  Probation  nor  the  Work- 
house group,  which  are  limited  to  misdemeanants,  is  there  any  woman 
who  was  convicted  of  a  felony  as  the  first  offense. 

One  might  expect,  from  a  study  of  the  differences  between  the  first 
and  latest  offense  of  the  women  in  this  study  that  there  would  be  a 
relationship  between  the  age  at  first  conviction  and  the  nature  of  the 
first  oft'ense.  This  we  find  to  be  true  in  Table  29  where  the  correla- 
tion ratio  between  age  at  first  conviction  and  nature  of  first  offense 
has  been  calculated.  The  ratio  of  .35  ±  .037  would  indicate  that  there 
Is  a  genuine  relationship  between  these  two  factors.  Reference  to  the 
mean  values  given  in  the  extreme  right-hand  column  shows  that  the 
order  of  arrangement  of  kinds  of  offenses  in  accordance  with  in- 
creasing age  at  first  conviction  is  as  follows:  (1)  General  criminality, 
(2)  Offenses  against  chastity,  (3)  Offenses  against  property  rights, 
(4)  Offenses  against  the  family,  (5)  Offenses  against  regulations  for 
public  health,  (6)  Offenses  against  the  person,  (7)  Offenses  against 
the  administration  of  government. 


(c)  First  Sentence 

After  observing  the  similarity  between  the  first  and  latest  offenses, 
we  might  expect  to  see  a  similarity  in  the  sentences  imposed  for  them. 
This  we  find  to  be  the  case  in  Table  30.  In  each  institutional  group 
studied  it  is  evident  that  the  largest  proportion  of  cases  were  sent  to 
an  institution  of  that  type  at  the  time  of  the  first  sentence.  We  must 
remember  that  a  fairly  large  percentage  in  each  group  are  first  of- 
fenders and  so  in  those  cases  the  first  sentence  will  apply  to  the  present 
sentence.  The  similarity  in  type  of  sentence  is  especially  striking  in 
the  Workhouse  and  Probation  groups,  one  of  which  has  91.2  per  cent 
first  sentenced  to  institutions  such  as  the  Workhouse,  the  Penitentiary 
or  County  Jails,  and  the  other  with  92.1  per  cent  first  put  on  proba- 
tion. It  would  seem,  particularly  in  the  Workhouse  group,  that  if  one 
were  once  sentenced  to  the  Workhouse,  she  would  continue  to  be  sent 
there  after  subsequent  convictions,  and  that  possibly  there  is  some  proc- 
ess of  selection  in  the  courts  which  makes  women  of  a  certain  type 
more  likely  to  be  sentenced  there. 


140     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


TABLE  30 

FIRST  SENTENCE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

First  Sentence 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

Probation  or  Suspended  Sen- 
tence  

22 . 8 
5.0 
5.0 

5S.4 

S.9 

7.5 
7.5 
1.3 
5.0 

23.8 
55.0 

26.3 
1.3 

65 . 8 
6.6 

10.9 
2.7 
1.8 

10.9 

70.9 
2.7 

2.0 
1,0 
1.0 
4.9 

91.2 

92.1 
2.0 
1.0 
2.9 

2.0 

27.5 

Fine 

3.2 

Juvenile  Institution 

1.8 

Reformatory  Institution 

Penitentiarj',     Workhouse     or 
County  Jail 

23.3 
36.1 

State  Prison 

8.2 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

101 

80 

76 

110 

102 

102 

571 

(d)  Juvenile  Delinquents 

While  we  are  discussing  the  first  offense,  it  may  be  well  to  note 
the  number  of  our  cases  who  have  been  juvenile  delinquents,  in  the 
sense  of  being  convicted  in  a  court  of  law  before  16  years  of  age.  In 
Table  21,  where  16  years  has  been  interpreted  as  being  any  age  be- 
tween 15  years,  6  months,  and  16  years,  6  months,  we  find  26  cases  or 
4.4  per  cent  of  our  total  group  who  appear  as  juvenile  delinquents, 
though  all  were  actually  convicted  before  the  age  of  15  years,  6  months. 
If  we  select,  however,  cases  of  all  those  who  were  convicted  before 
they  had  reached  their  16th  birthday,  the  upper  limit  of  the  Juvenile 
Court  age,  we  find  40  women  or  6.8  per  cent  of  our  total  group. 

This  small  percentage  of  women  who  have  been  convicted  as  juve- 
nile delinquents  is  striking  in  view  of  the  general  belief  that,  as  Dr. 
Healy  states :-" 


"  Healv.  William. 
Co.,  1915.  p.  10 


"The  Individual  Delinquent."     Boston.       Little,  Brown  & 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY  141 

"Practically  all  confirmed  criminals  begin  their  careers  in  childhood  or 
early  youth.  The  fact  of  this  remarkable  early  development  of  a  definite 
tendency  towards  criminality  was  soon  clear  to  us,  both  through  observable 
trends  in  young  offenders,  and  through  the  life  histories  of  older  delinquents. 
.  .  .  Another  writer,  cited  by  Morrison,  states,  'It  is  an  ascertained  fact  that 
there  is  scarcely  an  habitual  criminal  in  the  county  of  Staffordshire  who 
has  not  been  imprisoned  as  a  child.'  Even  more  important  is  the  thor- 
ough research  of  Matz,  who  investigated  the  prison  population  of  the 
province  of  Pommern.  He  found  that  in  70  per  cent  the  first  imprison- 
ment had  been  inflicted  before  the  21st  year,  and  that  of  the  repeated 
offenders  by  far  the  greater  number  had  received  their  first  punishment 
before  the  17th  year.  It  must  be  remembered  that  here  Matz  is  speaking 
not  of  the  commission  of  the  first  offense,  but  of  receiving  the  first  punish- 
ment." 

Lombroso  writes,  "All  great  criminals  have  given  proof  of  perver- 
sity in  their  youth,  especially  at  the  age  of  puberty  and  sometimes 
even  before."  -^  He  goes  on  to  cite  instances  of  numerous  French- 
Italian  penologists  who  have  found  many  criminals  with  the  "tendency 
to  theft,"  ''little  pilferings,"  etc.,  when  they  were  very  young.  He 
does  not  mean  that  these  early  delinquencies  were  necessarily  brought 
into  court,  but  that  the  individual  had  a  "tendency"  toward  criminality 
and  showed  it  in  early  youth  by  various  forms  of  "perversity." 

At  present  the  chief  criterion  of  assuming  that  a  person  is  criminal 
is  the  fact  of  his  conviction  in  a  court  of  law.  To  argue  that  all  great 
criminals,  though  not  convicted  when  children,  began  their  criminal 
careers  in  childhood,  would  be  to  assume  that  it  was  not  common  for 
those  who  grow  to  adult  life  without  contact  with  the  courts  also  to 
perform  the  acts  which  the  criminal  may  have  done  when  he  was  a 
child.  Of  this  we  have  no  proof.  Normal  children  undoubtedly  do  a 
certain  amount  of  pilfering  and  commit  other  anti-social  acts.  Until 
we  have  some  way  of  measuring  the  extent  of  "perversity"  in  the 
normal  youth  who  does  not  become  a  confirmed  criminal,  we  are  not 
in  a  position  to  state  that  the  criminal  who  was  not  convicted  during 
his  childhood  but  who  did  show  a  "definite  tendency  towards  crimi- 
nality" necessarily  began  his  "criminal  career  in  early  youth."  To 
hold  that  view  carried  to  the  extreme  would  be  to  agree  with  Lom-( 
broso  that  "Precocity  in  crime  points  to  the  fact  that  criminality,  muclii 
more  than  insanity,  is  an  inherited  characteristic.     This   reminds  us' 

°*  Lombroso,    Csesare.     "Crime :    Its    Causes   and   Remedies."     Translated   by 
Henry  P.  Horton.     Boston.     Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  1911,  p.  178. 


142    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

that  precocity  is  one  of  the  distinguishing  features  of  savage  peoples, — ■ 
a  new  proof  of  the  atavistic  origin  of  crime."  ^^ 

We  might  cite  here  cases  of  several  of  the  women  in  Auburn 
Prison  who  were  convicted  of  serious  offenses  in  the  eyes  of  the  law, 
and  who  were  recidivists.  Yet  in  the  group  of  eighty  women,  whose 
records  were  carefully  investigated,  there  were  only  two  cases  where 
there  had  been  convictions  under  sixteen  years  of  age.  One  of  the 
women  was  feeble-minded,  epileptic  and  consequently  very  unstable. 
Her  crimes  seemed  more  a  matter  of  her  instability  than  of  any  crimi- 
nal intent.  The  other  juvenile  delinquent  in  the  Auburn  group  was  a 
woman  who  would,  without  doubt,  fit  in  with  Dr.  Healy's  idea  of  a 
confirmed  criminal  beginning  his  career  in  childhood  or  early  youth. 
Her  first  conviction  occurred  when  she  was  ten  years  and  eight  months 
of  age.  At  that  time  she  ran  away  from  home,  and  when  found  was  so 
troublesome  that  she  was  committed  to  the  Catholic  Protectory  as  an 
ungovernable  child.  When  fourteen,  she  was  arrested  as  a  common 
prostitute  and  sent  to  the  New  York  State  Training  School  at  Hudson. 
In  this  institution  she  was  so  troublesome  that  she  was  thought  to  be 
insane  and  was  transferred  to  Matteawan,  where  she  remained  seven 
months  and  was  discharged  as  not  insane.  The  report  from  Matteawan 
showed  at  that  time  a  history  of  prostitution,  stealing  and  drug  habit. 
Since  then  she  has  been  arrested  many  times  for  soliciting  and  loiter- 
ing, but  has  served  only  two  terms,  one  for  running  a  disorderly  house 
and  one  for  assault.  Her  present  conviction  was  for  murder  in  the 
second  degree.  For  $500  she  had  made  the  arrangement  for  two  men, 
belonging  to  a  Black  Hand  gang,  to  kill  an  Italian  whose  wife  wanted 
him  out  of  the  way  so  she  could  marry  another  man.  'This  one  case  is 
practically  alone,  out  of  the  group  of  the  most  serious  offenders  we 
have,  in  showing  marked  criminal  traits  during  childhood  and  adoles- 
cence. Since  the  group  of  women  studied  in  Auburn  Prison  covered 
the  commitments  for  two  consecutive  years,  it  would  seem  that  the 
sample  of  offenders  is  representative  enough  for  us  to  state  that  among 
the  most  serious  women  offenders  in  New  York  State  during  the 
years  1915-16,  there  was  no  proof  that  their  criminal  careers,  in  the 
sense  of  being  convicted  in  court,  began  in  childhood  or  early  youth. 

Some  may  object  that  the  juvenile  court  age  limit  is  set  too  low  and 
that  the  convictions  which  take  place  within  the  next  few  years  are  as 
significant  as  those  which  may  occur  earlier.  Out  of  587  cases,  how- 
ever, we  find  that  only  47.2  per  cent  were  convicted  under  24  years  of 

^  Op.  cit.,  p.  177. 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY  143 

age;  that  is,  that  over  half  of  our  cases  did  not  reach  the  courts  until 

they  were  well  into  the  adult  period.     From  this  observation,  it  would 

be  difficult  to  state  that  the  determinants  of   delinquent   careers  are 

necessarily  the  conditions   of  youth,   since  the  first  of  the  career  in 

the  courts  comes   at  a  period  widely  separated   from  the  conditions 

of  youth. 

The  forty  women  who  had  been  juvenile  delinquents  are  found  in 

the  institutional  groups  in  the  following  numbers : 

Bedford   18  cases 

Auburn    2 

Magdalen    8 

Probation    5 

Penitentiary     5      " 

Workhouse     2      " 

Two  of  the  Bedford  and  one  of  the  Magdalen  cases  came  into  this 
study  at  the  time  of  their  first  conviction  when  they  were  nearly  but 
not  quite  sixteen  years  of  age,  though  their  legal  age  was  sixteen.^" 

The  numbers  are  too  small  to  make  any  comparison  with  other 
groups,  but  the  main  factors  in  the  criminal  record  of  the  juvenile 
delinquents  are  given  to  show  that  there  is  no  strikingly  marked  dif- 
ference from  the  rest  of  our  cases.  The  present  offenses  of  this  group 
are  distributed  as  follows : 

Offenses  against  the  Person   2 

Offenses  against  Chastity   (all  soliciting  or  loitering)    22 

Offenses  against  the  P'amily,  etc 1 

Offenses  against  Regulations  for  Public  Health  1 

Offenses  against  Administration  of  Government   1 

Offenses  against  Property  Rights   10 

General   Criminality    3 

Only  five  of  the  forty  cases  were  felons  at  the  time  of  this  study. 
The  first  offenses  of  the  women  in  this  delinquent  group  were  as 

follows : 

Offenses  against   Chastity   6  cases  or  15.0% 

Offenses  against   Property   Rights    3       "        "      7.5% 

General    Criminality    30       "        "    75.0% 

Unknown     1       "        "      2.5% 

All  of  the   first  offenses   were  misdemeanors   with  the  exception   of 
one  case. 

The  number  of  previous  convictions  of  this  group  who  were  juve- 
nile delinquents  does  not  show  that  they  have  been  recidivists  to  as 
great  an  extent  as  have  the  women  in  some  of  our  institutional  groups. 
The  mean  number  of  convictions  is  1.82,  which  is  less  than  the  mean 
number  for  either  the  Penitentiaiy  or  Workhouse  groups. 

'^  Legal  age  is  the  age  given  by  the  delinquent  in  court  at  the  time  of  her 
conviction. 


144     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

No  previous  convictions  3  cases 

1  "  conviction  22      " 

2  "  convictions  7      " 

3  "  "  3      " 

4  "  "  4     " 

12  "  "  1   case 

The  number  of  months  served,  as  would  be  expected,  is  somewhat 
higher  than  for  the  institutional  groups  or  the  total  group  of  cases, 
since  juvenile  delinquents  usually  receive  an  institutional  commitment 
which  in  many  cases  involves  a  long  and  indefinite  stay  in  a  reforma- 
tor\-  institution.  The  sentence  for  a  similar  offense  among  older  per- 
sons would  be  much  shorter  in  most  cases.  The  distribution  of  time 
served  in  penal  institutions  follows  : 

Never    served    time    14  cases,  or  34.8% 

Served  less  than  1  year    6      "       "    15.0% 

1  to  2  years    7      "       "    17.5% 

2  "  3  "  4      "  "  10.0% 

3  "  4  "  6      "  "  15.0% 

4  "  5  "  1  case,  "  2.5% 

5  "  6  "  1      "  "  2.5% 

7  "  8  "  1       "  "  2.5% 

As  a  group,  it  may  be  said  that  the  juvenile  delinquents  do  not 
show  up  as  noticeably  different  in  any  way  from  the  rest  of  the 
cases.  The  numbers  are  too  small  for  statistical  comparisons,  but 
the  smallness  is  significant  as  showing  that  among  the  sample  of 
women  covered  in  our  study,  the  problem  of  juvenile  delinquency  has 
been  a  minor  one,  and  for  the  most  part,  there  is  no  proof  that  the 
most  serious  female  delinquents  have  begun  their  criminal  careers  in 
childhood  or  early  youth. 

It  should  be  noted  that  the  chief  insistence  on  the  extensiveness 
and  importance  of  juvenile  convictions  in  connection  with  the  problem 
of  recidivism  has  come  from  persons  concerned  primarily  with  men 
delinquents  or  with  boy  ofifenders.  It  is  entirely  possible  that  the  situ- 
ation is  quite  dififerent  as  it  afifects  women  delinquents.  Unfortunate- 
ly, adequate  data  for  comparison  are  not  available.  Goring's  figures  are 
the  most  valuable  for  this  purpose. ^^  We  have  already  called  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  the  mean  age  of  first  conviction  is  lower  for  his 
group  than  for  ours.  (See  page  130).  The  difference  in  numbers  of 
very  youthful  offenders  is  also  striking. 

Referring  to  Goring's  table  (Table  285)  we  find  that  337  (or  15.1 
per  cent)  out  of  a  total  of  2,225  men,  none  of  whom  were  first  offend- 
ers, had  been  convicted  before  they  were  fifteen  years  old.  On  the 
^  Op.  cit.    Table  285.  p.  424. 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  DELINQUENCY  145 

other  hand,  out  of  a  total  of  304  women  who  had  had  one  or  more 
previous  convictions,  only  fifteen  cases  (or  4.9  per  cent)  had  heen  con- 
victed prior  to  their  fifteenth  year.^" 

SUMMARY 

In  conclusion,  we  shall  summarize  the  most  important  factors  which 
arise  in  considering  the  delinquency  among  the  women  in  our  study. 
First,  it  is  well  to  keep  in  mind  that  the  New  York  City  Police  De- 
partment classification  of  offenses  which  we  have  used  throughout 
is  composed  of  seven  main  divisions,  each  of  which  is  unevenly  di- 
vided as  to  felonies  and  misdemeanors.  Since  two  of  our  groups,  the 
Workhouse  and  the  Probation  groups,  are  made  up  entirely  of  mis- 
demeanants and  Auburn  entirely  of  felons,  while  both  the  more  and 
less  serious  offenses  are  found  in  the  other  three  groups,  it  is  natural 
that  we  should  find  great  irregularities  in  the  distribution  '  of  the 
various  divisions  of  the  New  York  City  Police  Department  classifica- 
tion among  our  several  groups  of  delinquent  women.  While  in  the 
total  group  the  largest  percentage  of  women  fall  among  the  offenders 
against  chastity,  with  offenders  against  property  rights  having  the 
next  largest  percentage,  this  ratio  holds  true  in  no  institution  except 
Bedford,  though  the  off'enders  against  chastity  have  the  highest  per- 
centage in  each  group  except  Auburn  and  the  Penitentiary. 

In  showing  the  extent  of  delinquency,  our  best  measure  seems  to 
be  the  number  of  previous  convictions,  since  the  number  of  terms  and 
length  of  time  served  are  both  open  to  serious  criticisms.  They  both 
disregard  the  possibility  of  the  suspended  sentence  or  probation,  and 
in  addition  to  this  the  sentences  for  the  same  offense  vary  so  between 
institutions  of  a  reformatory  type  and  the  W^orkhouse,  for  instance, 
that  a  term  cannot  mean  the  same  in  both  cases,  and  the  different 
length  of  time  is  no  criterion.  The  distribution  of  number  of  convic- 
tions among  the  institutional  groups  shows  that  the  Workhouse  and 
Penitentiary  have  the  largest  mean  number  of  convictions,  and  the 
Probation  group  the  smallest,  while  the  other  three  groups  stand  fairly 
close  together  on  intermediate  ground.  Between  felons  and  misde- 
meanants there  appears  to  be  no  demonstrable  difference  in  the  mean 
number  of  convictions,  but  among  the  oft'enders  against  propertv 
rights  and  the  offenders  against  chastity  there  seems  to  be  a  valid  dif- 

^  The  above  data  are  easily  obtained  from  Table  30  by  subtracting  from  the 
total  number  of  554  the  250  cases  of  first  offenders.  The  number  convicted 
before  15  years  of  age  can  be  counted  up  from  the  table  directly. 


146    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

ference  both  in  the  tendency  of  the  offenders  against  property  rights 
to  have  a  larger  number  of  convictions  and  in  the  variation  of  the 
distribution  of  convictions,  the  offenders  against  property  rights  hav- 
ing a  wider  scattering. 

In  the  total  group,  the  percentage  of  recidivists  is  55.3.  This  per- 
centage varies,  however,  in  the  institutional  groups  from  16.3  in  the 
Probation  to  77.0  in  the  Workhouse.  Among  the  felons,  the  percent- 
age of  recidivists  is  48.7,  considerably  lower  than  the  percentage  of 
male  felon  recidivists,  in  studies  both  of  Sing  Sing  Prison  and  Auburn 
Prison. 

The  age  at  first  conviction  varies  among  the  institutional  groups, 
from  19.58  years  in  Bedford  to  32.1  years  in  the  Workhouse.  Among 
the  felons  and  misdemeanants  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  there  is  ap- 
parently a  real  difference  between  the  age  at  first  conviction  with  a 
tendency  for  the  felons  to  be  convicted  at  a  later  age.  There  seems 
to  be  a  somewhat  like  difference  between  the  age  at  first  conviction  of 
the  offenders  against  property  rights  and  offenders  against  chastity, 
with  a  tendency  for  the  offenders  against  property  rights  to  be  con- 
victed at  a  later  age. 

In  considering  the  nature  of  the  first  offense,  we  find  that  the  offend- 
ers against  chastity  still  have  the  largest  percentage  of  cases  in  all 
institutions  except  Auburn  and  the  Penitentiary,  where  the  offenders 
against  property  rights  have  the  highest  percentage  of  cases.  There 
is  a  large  increase  in  the  general  criminality  offenses  due  to  the  fact 
that  in  this  group  the  semi-juvenile  delinquencies  occur  which  we 
should  expect  in  many  of  the  younger  cases  to  be  the  first  offense. 

One  of  the  most  important  things  found  in  the  study  of  the  first 
contacts  with  the  law,  is  the  surprisingly  small  number  of  women  who 
have  been  convicted  as  juvenile  delinquents,  and  within  this  small 
group  the  lack  of  marked  dissimilarity  to  the  total  number  of  cases 
studied. 

The  basic  elements  of  the  criminal  record  as  given  in  this  chapter 
will  be  used  in  the  later  chapters  as  showing  the  relationship  between 
the  nature  and  extent  of  delinquency,  the  various  environmental  fac- 
tors and  mentality.  These  relationships,  as  previously  stated,  will  be 
treated  as  associated  with  the  delinquency,  but  not  necessarily  as 
causative  factors,  since  there  are  no  figures  for  the  general  population 
to  prove  that  such  factors  are  not  there  also  a  commonly  occurring 
condition. 


CHAPTER  VII 
MISCELLANEOUS  CONSIDERATIONS 

THOUGH  the  problems  in  which  we  are  primarily  interested  in  this 
study  are  the  larger  ones  of  school,  work,  home,  family  background, 
and  sex  life  in  their  relation  to  delinquency,  there  are  various  more  gen- 
eral elements  to  be  considered  which  afifect  these  more  important  prob- 
lems in  numerous  ways.  The  factor  of  age,  for  instance,  may  be  very 
necessary  in  determining  whether  there  is  any  significant  difference  in 
the  number  of  convictions  between  two  groups.  It  may  also  be  the 
basic  element  in  the  difference  between  prevailing  wages  of  any  two 
groups  to  be  compared,  or  in  the  length  of  time  prostitution  has  been 
carried  on,  since  in  the  one  case  we  might  expect  those  who  are  still 
very  young  to  have  a  lower  prevailing  wage,  and  in  the  other,  a  shorter 
time  in  prostitution.  There  are  various  other  miscellaneous  points  to 
be  noted,  relating  to  the  social  status  of  the  women,  and  these  will  be 
presented  briefly  so  that  they  may  be  used  for  reference  in  later  chap- 
ters. Among  these,  we  shall  consider  the  record  of  previous  commit- 
ments to  hospitals  for  the  insane,  habits  as  shown  by  the  amount  of 
alcoholism,  drug  addiction,  and  use  of  tobacco  among  the  different  in- 
stitutional groups,  and  a  very  brief  summary  of  the  criminal  records  of 
the  twenty-one  women  in  the  special  Intoxication  Group  of  the  Work- 
house. Civil  condition,  age  at  marriage,  and  religion  will  also  be  shown 
in  their  distribution  among  the  institutional  groups.  Though  these 
quite  unrelated  factors  do  not  add  appreciably  to  the  understanding  of 
any  one  problem,  they  serve  as  a  background  to  the  later  discussion  of 
comparisons  of  institutional  groups. 

AGE 

Probably  one  of  the  most  significant  factors  in  a  study  of  a  some- 
what heterogeneous  group  of  individuals  is  the  element  of  age.  Age 
may  help  to  account  for  a  very  high  or  a  very  low  number  of  convic- 
tions, for  a  long  or  short  history  of  prostitution,  for  a  high  or  a  low 

147 


148    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

prevailing  wage.  Accordingly,  it  is  necessary  to  define  clearly  what 
unit  is  taken  for  measuring  age,  and  to  keep  the  factor  of  age  in  mind 
in  connection  with  each  important  subject.  Throughout  this  study,  age 
is  given  in  years,  in  round  numbers.  Each  age  in  years  includes  the 
time  between  six  months  previous  to  and  six  months  following  that 
birthday.  That  is,  sixteen  years,  as  given  in  Table  31,  includes  offend- 
ers who  at  the  time  of  the  present  conviction  were  of  any  age  between 
fifteen  years,  six  months,  and  sixteen  years,  six  months.^ 

TABLE  31 

AGE  AT  PRESENT  CONVICTION 
Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Age 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

14  to  18  yrs.. 
18    "    22    "    . 
22    "    26    "    . 
26    "    30    "    . 
30   "    34    "    . 
34   "    38    "    . 
38    "    42    "    . 
42    "    46    "    . 
46    "    50    "    . 
50    "    54    "    . 
54    "    58    "    . 
58    "    62    "    . 
62    "    66    "    . 
66   "   70    "    . 
70    "    74    "    . 

22.8 

37.6 

19.9 

11.9 

6.0 

1.0 

1.0 

'8^9 

18.8 

13.9 

11.3 

16.3 

10.1 

7.6 

3.9 

5.1 

2.5 

1.3 

'i'3 

14.^ 

32.  f 

25.  ( 

15.' 

3.( 

6.f 

1.^ 

) 

.9 

4.6 

16.6 

17.4 

18.4 

13.8 

8.3 

4.6 

8.3 

1.8 

1.8 

2.8 

.9 

2.0 

4.0 

14.9 

16.8 

14.9 

9.9 

14.9 

5.9 

5.0 

5.0 

3.0 

2.0 

1.0 

i'o 

5.5 
35.9 
24.0 
17.4 
12.1 

'3^3 

'2^2 

7.5 

20.1 

19.6 

15.7 

11.5 

7.9 

6.7 

3.0 

3.5 

2.1 

1.3 

1.1 

.4 

.2 

.2 

Total .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

5    101 

80 

76 

109 

101 

92 

559 

Mean 

21.67 
±.480 

33.8 
±1.17 

22.97 
±.603 

33.67 
±.950 

34.9 
±1.09 

24.47 
±.647 

28  79 

(Tia 

+   429 

(J 

4.82 
+  .339 

10.42 

±.824 

5.26 
+    497 

9.92 

±.672 

10.97 

±.772 

6.21 

±.458 

10  13 

Co- ....  .     .  .    . 

+  303 

^The  data  on  age  which  we  have  used  in  this  study,  is  based  on  verified 
data  where  this  could  be  obtained,  but  where  we  did  not  have  any  verifica- 
tion, the  subject's  statement  has  been  used.  For  88  Bedford  "cases,  on 
which  both  the  subject's  statement  of  age  and  the  verified  age  were  avail- 
able, we  find,  by  calculating  the  correlation  between  these  two  factors,  that  the 
coefficient  of  correlation  is  .958,  indicating  that  there  is  a  very  high  relation- 
ship between  the  age  which  the  subject  gives  as  her  age  at  time  of  the  present 
conviction,  and  the  actual  age  determined  by  verification. 


MISCELLANEOUS  CONSIDERATIONS 


149 


Table  31,  followed  by  Chart  8,  shows  the  distribution  by  four-year 
intervals  of  the  ages  of  delinquent  women  in  the  various  institutional 
groups  with  the  mean  age  and  standard  deviation  for  each  group.  The 
lower  age  limit  of  fourteen  was  found  in  only  one  case,  that  of  a  col- 
ored girl  committed  to  the  Workhouse.^  This  is  the  only  case  in  which 
the  age  is  below  sixteen  years.  The  chart  indicates  what  has  been  stated 
previously  concerning  the  range  of  ages  within  the  institutional  groups.^ 
Bedford  has  only  eight  cases  over  the  thirty-year  age  limit,  while  a 
high  percentage  of  22.8  falls  in  the  lowest  age  group — from  fourteen  to 
eighteen  years.  The  range  of  ages  is  comparatively  short,  running 
from  15  to  38  years.  Auburn,  on  the  other  hand,  starts  with  the  later 
age  group  of  18  to  22,  and  has  a  long  range  up  to  70  years.  Here  the 
mean,  as  we  should  expect,  is  much  higher.  The  Magdalen  group  is 
more  like  the  Bedford,  with  a  fairly  high  percentage  of  cases  in  the 
first  age  group,  and  a  range  up  to  forty-two  years,  though  there  is 
somewhat  more  of  a  massing  of  cases  toward  the  upper  end  of  the 
scale,  resulting  in  a  larger  mean  age.  The  Penitentiary  shows  a  range 
more  like  that  in  Auburn  and  very  different  from  the  Magdalen  and 
Bedford.     The  mean  age  in  the  Penitentiary  is  also  very  close  to  that 


Per 

Cent 


TOTAL 


Chart  VIII 

Age  at  Present   Conviction 

Per  cent  distribution  by  institutional  groups 

'The  girl  had  given  her  age  to  the  judge  as  sixteen  years  when  as  a  mat- 
T-       u     u    f^^  "^""^  °"?^  fourteen  years,  four  months,  of  age.     In  addition  to 
this,  she  had  been  convicted  as  an  adult  criminal  four  months  earlier,  when  she 
was  only  fourteen    and  had  been  sentenced  to  the  Workhouse  for  thirty  days 
bee  Chapter  11  for  accounts  of  institutional  groups. 


Per 

Cent 


Per 
Cent 


Per 
Cent 


BEDFORD 


1 I 1 I I I I I I I I I I I r^ 

14    18    22    26    30    34    38    42    46    50    54    58    62    66    70     74 


AUBURN 


MAGDALEN 


I        I 


14  18         22  26  30  34  38  42  46  50         54  58  62  66         70  74 

ACE  VIII  O 

Chart  VIII   (Continued) 
Age  at  Present  Conviction 
Per  cent  distribution  by  institutional  groups 
150 


Per 
Cent 


Per 

Cent 


Per 

Cent 


PENITENTIARY 


WORKHOUSE 


PROBATION 


C 


o-» 


14  18         22  26  30  34  38         42  46  50        54  58  62  66        70  74 

AGE  v/iii 

Chart  VIII   (Continued) 
Age   at   Present   Conviction 
Per  cent  distribution  by  institutional  groups 
151 


152     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

of  Auburn.  The  Workhouse,  as  well  as  having  the  youngest  case,  also 
lias  the  oldest  case  in  the  entire  group,  a  woman  of  seventy-two  years, 
and  therefore  has  the  longest  range  of  years  of  any  of  the  institutions. 
The  mean  age  is  slightly  older  than  for  any  other  group,  though  there 
is  a  large  standard  deviation.  The  Probation  women  with  a  com- 
paratively short  range  of  cases  have  a  smaller  percentage  in  the  lowest 
age  group,  than  have  Bedford  and  the  Magdalen,  and  a  slightly  higher 
percentage  in  the  higher  age  groups  so  that  we  should  expect  the 
mean  age  to  be  higher  than  the  average  ages  in  the  other  two  groups. 
The  total  group,  which  will  be  used  in  many  of  the  correlations  to 
follow,  is  based  on  559  cases,  and  has  a  mean  age  of  28. 79 +  .429  years, 
with  a  fairly  large  standard  deviation  of  10.13  ±  .303  years.  As 
a  general  basis  of  comparison,  it  is  of  interest  to  note  that  the  institu- 
tions under  consideration  divide  quite  sharply  into  classes  with  re- 
spect to  age.  Bedford,  the  Magdalen,  and  the  Probation  group  differ 
only  slightly  from  one  another  in  mean  age.  showing  a  marked  se- 
lection of  younger  women.  Auburn,  the  Penitentiary,  and  the  Work- 
house, on  the  other  hand,  while  likewise  differing  only  slightly  from 
one  another,  are  made  up  of  considerably  older  groups,  as  shown 
by  their  mean  ages  given  above.  Wherever  it  has  been  felt  that  the 
factor  of  age  was  important  to  consider  in  the  relation  between  any 
other  two  observed  factors,  the  partial  correlation  coefficient  between 
the  two  traits  for  constant  age  has  been  used.^ 

As  stated  in  the  introduction,  it  was  found  to  be  impossible  to  ob- 
tain a  physical  and  medical  history  of  the  w'omen  in  all  of  the  institu- 
tional groups.  Two  of  the  institutions,  the  Workhouse  and  the  Peni- 
tentiary, kept  very  meager  records ;  the  Probation  group  had  no  physi- 
cal examination  for  the  most  part,  and  the  physical  records  in  the  Mag- 
dalen, Auburn,  and  Bedford  groups  differed  so  substantially  in  the  type 
of  record  kept  that  it  seemed  impracticable  to  try  to  use  the  medical 
data  available,  except  for  several  unconnected  items.  A  few  of  the 
general  factors  relating  to  the  physical  status  of  the  women  in  this 
study  will  be  considered  in  other  chapters.  Venereal  disease,  for  in- 
stance, will  be  included  in  the  chapter  relating  to  sex  history.  The 
number  of  full-term  children  or  miscarriages  will  be  considered  in 
connection  with  other  family  relationships  and  hereditary  influences  in 
Chapter  IX. 

*  See  Chapter  III. 


MISCELLANEOUS  CONSIDERATIONS 


153 


HABITS 

There  is,  however,  the  consideration  of  certain  habits  relating  to 
physical  status  which  we  will  present  here,  as  a  means  of  helping  to 
define  the  total -group.  These  habits  are  the  use  of  alcohol,  drugs  and 
tobacco.  The  material  on  which  these  figures  are  based  is  not  only  the 
statement  of  the  subject  but  the  corroboration  of  other  informants 
interviewed  by  the  field  worker.  We  have  not  included  as  excessive 
alcoholics  or  drug  addicts  any  women  concerning  whom  there  was 
reasonable  doubt  as  to  whether  or  not  alcohol  or  drugs  were  used  to 
excess. 

TABLE  32 

USE  OF  ALCOHOL 

Per   Cent   Distribution   Among   Delinquent   Women   in   Institutional 

Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Use  of  Alcohol 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 

tentiarj' 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

Never 

Moderate 

Excessive 

65.3 

16,8 

17. S 

35.9 
33.3 
30.8 

79.5 

11.0 

9.6 

55.6 
26.9 
17.6 

35.6 
33.7 
30.7 

50.0 
34.2 
15.9 

53.2 
26.2 
20.6 

Total .  .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

101 

78 

73 

108 

101 

82 

543 

From  Table  32  it  is  seen  that  the  Magdalen  and  Bedford  have  the 
largest  percentages  of  women  who  have  never  used  alcohol,  while  the 
Penitentiary,  Probation,  Auburn,  and  Workhouse  follow  in  order  of 
decreasing  percentages.  It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  Bedford  and  the 
Magdalen  which  have  the  lowest  average  ages  also  have  the  largest 
percentage  of  non-alcoholics. 

The  largest  percentage  of  excessive  drinkers,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
found  in  the  Auburn  group,  and  is  followed  by  the  Workhouse,  Bed- 
ford, Penitentiary,  Probation,  and  the  Magdalen.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  that  the  degree  of  alcoholism  is  much  alike  in  the  Auburn  and 


154     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

Workhouse  groups  where  one  might  expect  to  find  wide  discrepancies. 
The  fact  that  from  this  group  of  Workhouse  women  all  those  convicted 
of  intoxication  are  omitted,  serves  to  change  the  general  trend  of  Work- 
house commitments.  In  this  particular  comparison,  therefore,  we  must 
remember  that  only  a  part  of  the  Workhouse  is  represented,  and  that 
if  the  total  intoxication  cases  were  included  the  comparison  would  be 
quite  different. 

The  Special  Intoxication  group  in  the  Workhouse  which  has  been 
described  in  Chapter  I  ^  is  composed  of  twenty-one  cases.  It  may  be 
well  here  to  give  some  of  the  more  important  data  on  this  small  num- 
ber of  cases  which,  though  not  consecutive  in  admission  to  the  Work- 
house, were  chosen  from  the  total  group  of  Workhouse  women  ob- 
served, with  no  conscious  bias.  The  number  is  too  small  to  use  for 
any  extensive  comparison,  but  a  few  facts  may  serve  to  show  how  the 
group  is  different  from  the  W^orkhouse  group  which  we  have  used  in 
this  study.  Though  we  hesitate  to  draw  conclusions  from  results  with 
so  few  cases,  we  believe,  on  the  basis  of  rather  extensive  observation, 
that  the  discrepancy  indicated  above  is  genuine. 

It  is  probably  worthy  of  note  that  there  are  no  colored  women  in 
this  group  of  intoxication  cases.  Twelve  of  the  women  are  native 
white,  while  of  tlie  nine  foreign  born,  seven  come  from  Ireland,  one 
from  England,  and  one  from  Finland. 

As  stated,  the  nature  of  the  present  offense  in  each  of  these  cases  is 
for  intoxication  and  falls  in  the  general  classification  of  offenses 
against  regulations  for  public  health,  safety  and  policy,  and  also  in  the 
misdemeanor  group. 

The  extent  of  delinquency  among  the  women  of  this  group  is  of 
particular  interest  in  that  the  mean  number  of  convictions  is  11.0  in 
comparison  with  2.82  for  the  non-intoxication  cases  studied  in  the 
Workhouse  and  with  1.63  for  the  total  of  the  six  institutional  groups. 
It  is  also  probable  that  this  mean  number  is  based  on  only  a  part  of  the 
convictions  for  many  of  the  older  women  in  the  intoxication  group. 
Since  they  have  been  coming  into  the  courts  for  years  and  before  the 
finger-print  system  was  established,  it  is  likely  that  many  of  the  writ- 
ten records  for  constant  repeaters  were  not  found  by  the  field  worker. 
The  range  of  convictions  is  from  no  previous  convictions  in  2  cases  to 
35  in  one  case.  The  first  offenders  were  only  2,  or  9.5  per  cent  of  the 
total,  in  comparison  with  23.0  per  cent  for  the  rest  of  the  Workhouse 
group,  and  with  44.7  per  cent  first  offenders  for  the  total  group.     The 

•See  Chapter  TT.  n.  24 


MISCELLANEOUS  CONSIDERATIONS 


155 


length  of  time  served  runs  from  no  time  served  to  94  months  and,  6 
days.    The  mean  number  of  months  served  is  20.42. 

If  we  turn  to  the  first  offenses  of  the  women  in  this  intoxication 
group  we  find  that  the  age  at  the  first  conviction  has  a  range  of  from 
25  to  71  years,  with  a  mean  age  of  40.7  years.  This  is  considerably 
older  than  the  average  age  at  first  conviction  of  the  larger  Workhouse 
group,  32.1  years,  but  very  likely  does  not  represent  the  actual  age  at 
first  conviction  for  several  of  the  older  women  who  say  they  have  "been 
coming  to  the  Island  ever  since  I  can  remember."  The  nature  of  the 
first  offense  in  ten  cases  or  practically  half  of  the  total  was  in  the  same 
group  of  ofifenses  against  regulations  for  public  health,  and  nearly  all 
were  intoxication  cases.  Nine  women,  or  47.4  per  cent,  were  first  con- 
victed of  general  criminality  offenses.  If  we  add  all  of  the  convic- 
tions of  each  of  the  twenty-one  cases,  we  have  212  previous  convic- 
tions. Of  this  number,  only  four  convictions  were  for  offenses  involv- 
ing prostitution,  all  the  others  being  for  intoxication  or  disorderly  con- 
duct.*' 

°  To  show  the  impossibility  of  having  reliable  information  if  the  statement 
of  the  woman  is  used  when  she  has  had  a  record  like  the  following,  both  the 
woman's  statement  and  the  verified  record  of  convictions  are  given  for  two  of 
the  intoxication  cases  in  the  Workhouse. 


Woman's  Statement 

Verified  Record 

""At  first  insisted 

1. 

1/14/03, 

Disorderly  conduct, 

that  her  first  con- 

2. 

3/29/04, 

Intoxication, 

viction   was   two 

3. 

4/30/04, 

Disorderly  conduct, 

years  ago.    Later 

stated    that    she 

4. 

8/12/04, 

((              t( 

'stayed     out     of 

prison    for   three 

5. 

9/14/05, 

Intoxication, 

years  at  a  time, 

6. 

4/  3/05, 

Disorderly  conduct. 

two    years    ago.' 

Then  said  she  had 

7. 

5/  7/05, 

((               11 

had  5  and  10  day 

sentences   and   6 

8. 

9/  1/05, 

Intoxication, 

months  the    last 

9. 

11/18/05, 

Disorderly  conduct. 

time.    No  further 

10. 

6/20/06, 

Intoxication, 

information  could 

11. 

10/  7/07, 

it 

be  obtained  from 

12. 

5/16/OS, 

Disorderly  conduct, 

the  woman,  who 

13. 

11/  2/08, 

ii              It 

seemed    confused 

14. 

6/  3/09, 

t<              tt 

and  said  she  'nev- 

15. 

1/24/10, 

tt              It 

er  could  remem- 

16. 

8/23/11, 

Intoxication, 

ber  dates'." 

17. 

10/20/11, 

Disorderly  conduct, 

18. 

11/24/11, 

tt              It 

19. 

7/  9/12, 

tt              (( 

20. 

7/25/12, 

<(              (1 

21. 

10/14/12, 

Intoxication, 

22. 

6/  7/13, 

Disorderly  conduct, 

23. 

8/  1/14, 

a                     It 

Workhouse,    5  days. 
20  days. 

"  6  mos.,  or 

.S500  fine. 
Workhouse,    1   mo.,   or 

S500  fine. 
Workhouse,  160  days. 

"  1   mo.,   or 

$300  fine. 
Workhouse,    6  mos.,  or 

$500  fine. 
Workhouse,    5  days. 

"  6  mos. 

"  6  mos. 

"  6  mos. 

"  6  mos. 

"  6'mos. 

"  6  mos. 

"  6  mos. 

10  days 

"     10  days. 
180  days. 

"      5  days. 
30  days. 

"     60  days. 
10  days. 

"     30  days. 


156     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

By  the  nature  of  the  group,  all  of  the  special  intoxication  cases 
have  used  alcohol  to  excess.  None  of  the  women  in  the  group  denied 
this.  All  denied  use  of  drugs  in  any  form  and  there  was  no  outside 
evidence  obtained  to  contradict  their  statements.  It  was  found  tliat 
three  of  the  group  used  tobacco  to  excess. 

While  we  are  considering  the  question  of  alcoholism,  it  will  be  ad- 
visable to  show  the  relation  of  the  alcoholic  and  non-alcoholic  groups 
to  the  number  of  convictions.  For  this  comparison,  alcoholic  has  been 
used  to  include  both  the  excessive  drinkers  in  the  regular  group  of 
587  cases,  and  the  special  intoxication  cases  in  the  Workhouse.  The 
non-alcoholic  includes  those  who  never  use  alcohol  and  the  moderate 


Woman's  Statement 


"Been  coming 
here  again  and 
again  for  years. 
Came  out  of  jail 
six  months  ago. 
Was  arrested  the 
next  day  and  got 
six  months." 


24.  9/  2/14, 

25.  9/29/14, 


6/11/15, 
6/23/15, 
7/16/15, 
9/16/15, 
10/24/15, 

10/31/15, 

11/10/15, 
12/20/15, 

3/27/16, 
5/22/16, 

9/  5/11, 
11/22/11, 
12/27/11, 

8/19/13, 
12/30/13, 

3/14/14, 

8/  4/14, 
2/  5/15, 


9.  2/15/15, 


26. 
27. 
28. 
29. 
30. 

31. 
32. 
33. 
34. 
35. 

1. 

2. 
3. 
4. 


10. 
11. 

12. 
13. 


7/22/15, 
9/15/15, 

11/14/15, 
12/  4/15, 


Verified  Record 

Intoxication,  Workhouse,  5  days,  or 

$5.00  fine. 
"  House    of    Good    Shep- 

herd, 9/29/14-4/5/15. 
Disorderly  conduct.  Workhouse,  10  days. 
Intoxication,  "  15  days. 

"30  days. 
30  days. 
Disorderly  conduct,  "  5  days,  or 

$5.00  fine. 

Intoxication,  Workhouse,  10  days. 

"  30  days. 

3  mop. 

Di.sorderly  conduct,  "  30  days. 

Intoxication,  "  6  mos. 


Intoxication, 
Disorderly  conduct. 


30 
1 
6 


Intoxication, 


30 

30 

1 

$500  fine. 

Workhouse,    6 

10 

$10  fine. 

Disorderly  conduct.  Workhouse,    3 
.?100  fine. 
Workhouse,  10 
Intoxication  and  di.s- 
orderly conduct.  "  60 
Disorderly  conduct,           "            20 


$10  fine. 


days. 

mo. 

mos. 

days. 

days. 

mo.,   or 

mos. 
days,  or 

mos.,  or 

days. 

days, 
days, 
days,  or 


14.    12/14/15,    Vagrancy,     violation 

of  Tenement 

House  Law,  AVorkhou.se,    5 

Disorderly  conduct,  "  30 

Intoxication,  "  30 


12/19/15, 
5/16/16, 
6/23/16, 

10/24/16, 


days, 
days, 
days, 
mos. 
mos. 


MISCELLANEOUS  CONSIDERATIONS 


157 


drinkers,  A  comparison  of  the  average  number  of  previous  con- 
victions for  the  alcoholic  and  non-alcoholic  groups  shov^^ed  that  the 
average  for  the  alcoholic  group  is  5.35  convictions,  while  the  average 
for  the  non-alcoholic  group  is  only  2.285  convictions.  That  this  is 
a  valid  difference  is  shown  by  the  ratio  5.83.  A  comparison-  of  the 
dispersions  of  number  of  convictions  among  the  two  groups  indicates 
that  there  is  a  valid  difference  in  the  dispersion  of  the  two  groups, 
with  a  wider  scattering  among  the  alcoholic  group. 

TABLE  33 

ALCOHOLIC*  AND  NON-ALCOHOLIC 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  the  Number  of 

Previous  Convictions  Among  Alcoholic  and  Non-Alcoholic 

Women  of  Total  Group 


Alooholic 

Xon-Alcoholic 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that 

real  differ- 
ence does  not 
exist  are  1 
in: 

Mean 

5.35 
+  .517 

2.285 
+  .0984 

3.07 

5.83 

CO 

(7m 

(J 

5.96 
+  .365 

2.044 
+  .0696 

3.92 

10.53 

00 

(J„ 

Cases 

133 

431 

♦Those  who  use  alcohol  to  excess.    Includes  21  cases  from  Special  Intoxication  Group  in  Workhouse. 

In  determining  what  percentage  of  the  cases  are  drug-addicts,  no 
measure  of  "moderate"  has  been  used,  and  none  have  been  counted  as 
drug-users  who  did  not  have  a  habit  at  the  time  of  the  present  convic- 
tion or  shortly  before.  The  following  table  shows  that  the  percentage 
of  drug-users  varies  from  6.2  per  cent  in  the  Probation  group  to  33.7 
per  cent  in  the  Penitentiary,  where  a  large  percentage  of  the  women 
convicted  of  possessing  or  selling  drugs  are  sentenced.  The  five  women 
drug-users  in  the  Probation  group  were  not  convicted  of  using  drugs 
and  the  fact  of  their  being  drug-addicts  was  not  discovered  until  after 
the  probation  sentence  was  given. 

The  use  of  tobacco  also  varies  considerably  among  the  institu- 
tional groups.  The  Workhouse  has  the  lowest  percentage  who  never 
use  tobacco  and  is  followed  by  the  Penitentiary,  Auburn,  Probation. 
Bedford,  and  Magdalen  in  order  of  increasing  percentages.     Of  those 


158     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

TABLE  34 
USE  OF  DRUGS 

Per   Cent   Distribution   Among   Delinquent   Women   in   Institutional 

Groups 


Institdtional  Groups 

Use  of  Drugs 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

D.-ug-Users .... 
Non-Drug-Users 

14.9 
85.1 

13.0 

87.0 

13.7 
86.3 

33.7 
66.4 

22.8 

77.2 

6.2 
93.8 

18.3 

81.7 

Totals. .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

101 

77 

73 

107 

101 

81 

540 

who  use  tobacco  to  excess,  however,  the  order  is  changed  from  Pro- 
bation with  the  smallest  percentage  to  the  Magdalen,  Bedford,  Peni- 
tentiary, Auburn,  and  Workhouse  in  increasing  order. 

TABLE  35 

USE  OF  TOBACCO 

Per   Cent   Distribution   Among   Delinquent   Women   in   Institutional 

Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Use  of  Tobacco 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

Never 

82.2 

2.0 
15.8 

79.2 
20.8 

84.7 

2.8 

12.5 

72.0 
9.4 

18.7 

59.0 
8.0 

33.0 

81.3 

10.7 

8.0 

75.6 

Moderate 

Excessive 

5.6 

18.8 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

101 

77 

72 

107 

100 

75 

532 

MISCELLANEOUS  CONSIDERATIONS  159 

There  are  many  possibilities  of  comparison  of  habits  with  other 
studies  of  deHnquents.  Of  these  only  two  will  be  noted  as  directly 
comparable  with  certain  of  our  institutional  groups.  First  of  all,  a 
comparison  of  Dr.  Guibord's  study  of  200  Bedford  cases  in  1914  may 
be  of  interest  in  showing  whether  there  seems  to  be  any  marked  change 
in  the  make-up  of  this  group  in  a  few  years.'^ 

Habits  of  200  Bedford  Habits  of  Women  in 

Women  in  1914.  Present  Study  for: 

Group  A.     Group  B.  Bedford    Total  Group 
Excessive    or    frequent    use 

of    alcohol    35.0%            27.0%                ■    34.6%  46.8% 

Drug-addicts     21.0%              7.0%  14.9%            18.3% 

Excessive  use  of  tobacco    .    20.0%             17.0%  15.8%            18.8% 

The  most  noteworthy  discrepancy  is  that  between  the  percentages 
of  drug-users  in  the  three  Bedford  groups.  This  amount  of  variation 
would  indicate  that  the  proportion  of  drug-users  in  this  institution 
varies  from  year  to  year  to  a  considerable  extent. 

In  a  study  of  200  male  felons  in  Auburn  Prison,  Dr.  Heacox  finds 
results  quite  different  from  those  for  our  group  of  women  in  Auburn 
Prison  or  for  our  total  group.  The  latter,  which  includes  a  high  per- 
centage of  misdemeanants,  we  should  expect  to  differ  from  a  group  of 
male  felons.  The  following  percentages  from  the  above  groups  are 
known  to  have  used  alcohol,  drugs,  or  tobacco  to  either  a  moderate  or 
an  excessive  degree. 

Auburn  Men'  Auburn  Women  Total  Women 

Alcohol    87.5%  64.1%  46.8% 

Drugs     2.5%  13.0%  18.3% 

Tobacco    95.0%  20.8%  24.4% 

It  is  surprising  to  find  so  much  larger  a  percentage  of  drug-addicts 
in  the  group  of  Auburn  women  than  among  the  Auburn  men.  There 
seems  to  be  no  clear  reason  for  the  difference,  since  in  neither  group 
are  commitments  possible  for  drug-using. 


RECORD  OF  COMMITMENTS  TO   HOSPITALS  FOR  THE  INSANE 

We  may  note  briefly,  at  this  point,  the  number  of  women  in  the 
institutional  groups  who  have  at  any  time  been  patients  in  a  hospital 

^  Guibord,  Alberta  S.  B.  "Physical  States  of  Criminal  Women."  Journal 
of  the  American  Institute  of  Criminal  Lazv  and  Criminology,  vol.  VIII,  no.  i, 
May  1,  1917. 

"  From  unpublished  figures  on  200  consecutive  admissions  to  Auburn  Prison. 


160     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

for  the  insane.  We  have  not  included  here  the  cases  of  obviously 
psychopathic  women  who  have  not  been  in  hospitals,  since  there  was 
no  routine  psychiatric  examination  in  any  group  except  Bedford,  and 
there  was  no  equally  reliable  information  for  comparison  on  the  other 
groups.  The  numbers  and  percentages  of  women  who  have  at  some 
time  been  in  a  hospital  for  the  insane  are  as  follows : 

Number        Per  Cent 

Bedford    6  5.9 

Auburn     3  3.4 

Magdalen     0  0.0 

Penitentiary    5  4.5 

Workhouse    8  7.1 

Probation    2  2.0 

Total   24  4.1 

This  small  .percentage  of  4.1,  it  must  be  remembered,  does  not  in- 
clude all  who  might  have  been  diagnosed  as  insane,  had  a  proper  exam- 
ination been  given,  but  merely  those  who  had  at  some  time  during  their 
lives  been  diagnosed  as  insane  and  committed  to  a  hospital  for  the 
insane. 

The  diagnoses  as  we  were  able  to  obtain  them  from  the  hospitals  on 
these  24  cases  are  as  follows  : 

Constitutionally  inferior    5 

Manic   Depressive    5 

Manic  Depressive  with  Alcoholism  3 

Dementia   Prjecox    2 

Alcoholic   Psychosis,  Korsakoff  Type    1 

Stuporous    Melancholia    1 

Involutional    Melancholia    1 

Infective   Exhaustion    1 

Mental  Defective  with  Psychosis    1 

Not    Insane    1 

Diagnosis   unknown    3 

In  Dr.  Katharine  B.  Davis'  study  of  647  prostitutes  at  Bedford,^ 
twenty  cases,  or  3.1  per  cent  of  the  group,  were  transferred  to  hospitals 
for  the  insane  while  they  were  at  Bedford.  This  does  not  include,  how- 
ever, women  who  had  at  any  time  in  the  past  been  in  such  a  hospital, 
so  that  the  percentage  is  probably  lower  than  it  should  be  for  exact 
comparison  with  our  data. 

*  Kneeland.  George  J. :  "Commercialized  Prostitution  in  New  York  City," 
Chapter  VIII  by  Katharine  Bement  Davis.  A  Study  of  Prostitutes  Committed 
to  the  State  Reformatory  for  Women  at  Bedford  Hills.  The  Century  Com- 
pany, 1916,  p.  186. 


MISCELLANEOUS  CONSIDERATIONS 


161 


CIVIL    CONDITION 

Turning  to  other  general  items  indicating  the  social  status  of  the 
women  delinquents,  we  may  first  consider  the  question  of  civil  condi- 
tion. The  following  table  shows  that  the  percentage  of  single  women 
varies  between  the  institutional  groups  to  a  large  extent.  As  would 
be  expected,  the  highest  percentages  of  single  women  are  found  in 
two  groups,  Bedford  and  Magdalen,  where  the  average  age  is 
lowest.  The  total  group  shows  42.4  per  cent  of  the  women  single. 
Among  those  who  have  been  married  the  percentage  who  were  widowed 
or  divorced  at  the  time  of  the  present  conviction  varies  between  the 
groups  somewhat  as  the  percentage  of  those  married  varies.  That  is, 
those  groups  with  the  highest  percentage  married,  namely,  Auburn, 
Penitentiary  and  Workhouse,  have  the  highest  percentage  who  are 
divorced  or  widowed.  If  we  compare  the  total  delinquent  group  with 
the  general  female  population  fifteen  years  of  age  and  over  in  New 
York  State,  we  see  that  the  delinquent  group  has  an  appreciably 
smaller  percentage  of  women  who  are  married.  This  varies,  however, 
in  a  comparison  with  the  institutional  groups,  those  groups  with  the 
highest  average  ages,  Auburn,  Penitentiary,  and  Workhouse,  having 
a  higher  percentage  of  married  women  than  the  general  population. 


TABLE  36 

CIVIL  CONDITION 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 

and  of  General  Female  Population  15  Years  of  Age  and 

Over  in  New  York  State,  in  1910 


Institutional  Groups 

Total 

General 

Civil  Condition 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

'  Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
liouse 

Proba- 
tion 

Female 
Population 

Single 

63.4 
36-6 

16.3 

83.8 

09.7 
30.3 

29.6 

70.4 

27.7 
72.3 

50.5 
49.5 

42.4 
57. G 

33  8 

Married 

66  2 

Widowed 

Divorced 

2.0 
2.0 

3.8 
17.5 

1.3 
4.0 

2.8 
15.7 

4.9 
14.9 

2.2 
4.3 

2.9 

9.8 

11.3 
.3 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100  0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases .... 

101 

SO 

76 

108 

101 

93 

559 

3,291,714 

162     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

The  age  at  first  marriage  is  presented  by  institutional  groups  to 
show  the  range  of  ages  and  where  the  greatest  massing  occurs.  The 
mean  age  at  first  marriage  for  the  total  group  is  20.5  years ±.268. 
The  standard  deviation  of  4.68±.189  years  indicates  that  there  is  not 
a  particularly  wide  scattering  of  ages.  There  are  92  cases  or  30.0  per 
cent  of  the  total  group  who  were  married  under  18  years,  which  is  the 
legal  age  of  consent  in  New  York  State.  There  were  30  cases  or  9.8 
per  cent  married  under  16  years,  the  limit  of  the  Juvenile  Court  age. 


TABLE  37 

AGE  AT  FIRST  MARRIAGE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  CJroups 

Age 

Total 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

13  to  16  yrs. 

8.3 

10.8 

4.4 

9.2 

11.9 

10.3 

9.8 

16    "    19    " 

44.4 

30.8 

13.1 

27.6 

22.4 

43.6 

30.1 

19    "   22    " 

25.0 

29.2 

30.5 

22.4 

23.9 

23.1 

25.2 

22    "    25    " 

13.9 

15.4 

34.8 

17.1 

26.9 

7.7 

18.6 

25   "    28    " 

5.6 

9.2 

13.1 

9.2 

7.5 

7.7 

8.5 

2S    "    31    " 

2  8 

3,1 

4.4 

7.9 

4.5 

5.1 

4.9 

31    "    34    " 

1.5 

1.3 

1.5 

1.0 

34    "    37    " 

2.6 

.7 

37    "    40    " 

i.5 

2.6 

.7 

40    "    43    " 

i.3 

.3 

43    "   46    " 

1.3 

.3 

Total. . 

.    100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cas 

es      36 

65 

23 

76 

67 

39 

306 

Mean  Age  at  First  Marriage  (Total  Group), .  .20.50  ±   .268  y;ars. 
<r  (Total  Group) 4.68  ±   .189  years. 

If  we  compare  the  age  of  the  husband  at  this  first  marriage,  we 
see  from  Table  38  that  the  distribution  begins  at  a  later  age  and  runs 
to  a  later  age.  Only  eleven  men  or  five  per  cent  were  married  before 
they  were  eighteen  years  of  age  to  the  women  in  this  study,  and  only 
two  men  or  .9  per  cent  were  married  before  they  were  sixteen.  The 
average  age  of  the  first  husband  at  marriage  is  25.27^.475  years,  with 
a  standard  deviation  of  7.056±.336  years.  This  shows  that  the  men 
were  of  a  considerably  older  average  age  than  the  women  whom  they 
married. 


MISCELLANEOUS  CONSIDERATIONS 


163 


TABLE  38 

AGE  OF  FIRST  HUSBAND  AT  MARRIAGE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Age 

Total 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

13  to  16  yrs.. 

2.0 

3.5 

.9 

16    "    19    "    . 

2.8 

13.7 

6.3 

7.0 

13.0 

6.9 

9.1 

19    "    22    "    . 

22.2 

19.6 

18.8 

20.9 

10.9 

34.5 

20.4 

22    "    25    "    . 

27.8 

15.7 

37.5 

27.9 

30.4 

31.0 

26.7 

25    "    28    "    . 

19.4 

17.7 

12.5 

20.9 

19.6 

10.4 

17.7 

28   "    31    "    . 

16.7 

11.8 

9.3 

4.4 

10.4 

9.5 

31    "    34    "    . 

2.8 

11.8 

18.8 

4.7 

8.7 

7.2 

34    "    37    "    . 

6.3 

2.3 

4.4 

3.5 

2.3 

37    "    40    "    . 

2.3 

.5 

40    "    43    "    . 

2.0 

4.4 

1.4 

43    "    46    "    . 

2.8 

3.9 

2.3 

1.8 

46    "    49    "    . 

2.8 

2.0 

2.3 

1.4 

52    "    55    "    . 

2.8 

2.2 

.9 

61    "    63    "    . 

2.2 

.5 

Total..  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

36 

51 

16 

43 

46 

29 

221 

Mean  Age  of  First  Husband  at  Marriage  (Total  Group) . .  25 .  27  ±  .  475  y  ;ars 
<r  (Total  Group) 7.056  ±  .336  years 


RELIGION 

The  religion  of  the  women  shows  varying  differences  in  the  institu- 
tional groups.  Before  discussing  these  differences  in  detail  it  will  be 
well  to  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  we  have  no  representation  here  of 
institutions  such  as  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd  where  the  inmates 
are  very  largely  Catholic.  This  particularly  affects  the  percentages  in 
Bedford,  Magdalen,  and  the  Workhouse,  which  receive  much  the  same 
kind  of  cases  that  are  sent  to  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd.  Table 
39  shows  that  in  these  three  groups  there  are,  as  we  should  expect,  a 
smaller  percentage  of  Catholic  than  of  Protestant  women,  but  to  offset 
this  we  must  remember  that  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd  is  almost 
entirely  Catholic  and  that  the  percentages  of  women  in  these  three 
institutional  groups  classified  by  religion  are  not,  therefore,  representa- 
tive of  the  religion  of  delinquent  women  as  a  whole.  In  general,  the 
figures  for  Auburn  and  Probation  ought  not  to  be  seriously  affected 
by  the  existence  of  Catholic  institutions,  since  these  two  groups  tend  to 


164       STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

receive  a  distinct  t}pe  of  case,  which  in  most  instances,  would  not  re- 
ceive any  other  kind  of  sentence.  The  Penitentiary  might  have  been 
affected,  to  a  certain  extent,  partictdarly  with  such  offenses  as  possess- 
ing drugs,  which  are  punishable  by  commitment  to  a  private  institution 
like  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd.  In  these  three  groups.  Auburn, 
Penitentiary,  and  Probation,  .we  see  that  the  percentages  of  Catholics 
are  larger  than  those  of  Protestants,  and  that  the  difference  is  most 
marked  in  the  Probation  group  with  55.1  per  cent  of  its  cases  Catholics 
and  30.3  per  cent  Protestants.  Thfe  percentages  for  our  total  group  of 
delinquent  women  are  of  little  value  for  anything  except  material 
descriptive  of  the  group,  because  this  total  includes  the  three  institu- 
tional groups  which  are  largely  Protestant  because  the  Catholic  women 
have  been  sent  to  a  Catholic  institution.  From  the  three  groups,  there- 
fore, which  can  give  any  accurate  indication  of  the  percentage  of  Cath- 
olics, Hebrews  and  Protestants,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  Catho- 
lics in  each  case  make  up  the  highest  percentage,  the  Protestants  next 
highest,  and  the  Hebrews  a  relatively  small  percentage.  It  is  impossible 
to  obtain  any  recent  figures  from  the  Census  or  from  any  other  exten- 
sive studies  to  compare  the  percentages  from  the  denominational  groups 
among  delinquent  women  with  the  same  for  the  general  population,  and 
it  is,  therefore,  difficult  to  state  whether  the  percentages  of  Catholics, 
Protestants  and  Hebrews  are  in  excess  or  below  the  percentages  for 
these  denominational  groups  in  the  general  population. 

TABLE  39 
RELIGION 
Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Religion 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

Catholic 

36.6 

46.3 

22.7 

43.0 

35.0 

55.1 

40.0 

Greek  Cath. . 
Roman  Cath. 

Hebrew 

Protestant 

1.0 
35.6 

8.9 

54.5 

3.8 
42.5 

11.3 

42.5 

22  .'7 
41.3 
36.0 

43.0 
15.0 
42.1 

35^0 
10.0 
55.0 

55^1 
14.6 
30.3 

.7 
39.3 

15.9 

44.0 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

101 

80 

75 

107 

100 

89 

552 

MISCELLANEOUS  CONSIDERATIONS  165 

SUMMARY 

From  this  chapter  of  somewhat  heterogeneous  social  factors  in  the 
Hves  of  the  dehnqitent  women  under  consideration,  we  may  note  the 
following  points. 

The  average  age  varies  from  21.7  years  in  the  Bedford  group  to 
34.9  years  in  the  Workhouse.  The  institutional  groups  divide  them- 
selves into  two  groups,  those  of  appreciably  younger  average  ages, 
Bedford,  Magdalen  and  Probation,  and  those  of  an  older  average  age, 
Auburn,  Penitentiary  and  Workhouse.  The  average  age  of  the  total 
group  which  we  shall  use  in  later  chapters  is  28.8  years. 

The  habits  of  the  women  in  institutional  groups  are  of  considerable 
importance,  especially  in  reference  to  the  use  of  alcohol,  drugs'  and 
tobacco.  From  Table  39,  we  found  that  the  percentage  who  used  alco- 
hol moderately  or  to  excess  varied  considerably  between  the  institu- 
tional groups,  with  the  Magdalen  having  the  largest  percentage  of  non- 
alcoholics  and  the  Workhouse  the  smallest  percentage.  A  brief  survey 
of  the  21  intoxication  cases  from  the  Workhouse  shows  that  the  aver- 
age number  of  convictions  among  this  group  is  11.0,  almost  seven 
times  as  large  as  the  average  number  of  convictions  for  the  total  of  the 
six  institutional  groups.  If  we  compare  the  mean  number  of  convic- 
tions for  the  non-alcoholic  group,  that  is,  those  who  never  use  alcohol 
or  do  so  moderately,  with  those  who  use  alcohol  to  excess,  including  the 
special  intoxication  group  in  the  Workhouse,  we  find  that  the  crude 
differences  of  the  mean  convictions  are  large  and  that  these  differences 
are  significant.  That  is,  the  average  number  of  convictions  for  the 
alcoholic  group  is  much  larger  than  for  the  non-alcoholic  group. 

The  use  of  drugs  also  varies  markedly  in  the  institutional  groups, 
with  the  lowest  percentage  of  drug-addicts  in  the  Probation  group  from 
a  court  which  has  no  jurisdiction  over  charges  of  possessing  or  using 
drugs,  and  the  largest  percentage  in  the  Penitentiary  which  receives 
the  bulk  of  the  women  who  are  convicted  of  possessing  drugs. 

The  use  of  tobacco,  while  not  of  so  much  importance  as  the  drug- 
addiction  and  use  of  alcohol,  is  of  some  interest,  especially  in  compari- 
son with  other  groups  of  delinquents.  A  group  of  male  felons  in  Au- 
burn Prison,  for  instance,  has  95.0  per  cent  of  the  group  using  tobacco 
to  excess,  while  in  our  group  of  Auburn  women  the  excessive  tobacco 
users  are  only  20.8  per  cent. 

The  record  of  commitments  to  hospitals  for  the  insane  shows  that 
4.1  per  cent  of  our  total  group  have  at  some  time  been  patients  in  such 


166       STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

hospitals.  This  does  not  include  those  who  may  be  mentally  diseased 
or  deteriorated,  but  who  have  not  been  in  a  hospital  for  the  insane. 

If  we  proceed  to  the  other  social  factors  of  civil  condition,  age  at 
marriage,  etc.,  we  find  that  the  groups  with  the  youngest  average  age 
at  present  conviction  have  the  largest  percentage  unmarried.  The  aver- 
age age  at  first  marriage  for  the  total  group  of  women  is  20.5  years, 
while  the  average  age  of  the  first  husband  at  the  time  of  marriage  to 
the  women  in  this  study  is  25.3  years. 

The  distribution  by  religion  is  difficult  to  interpret  since  the  num- 
ber of  Catholics  in  Bedford,  Magdalen,  and  the  Workhouse  is  affected 
by  the  fact  that  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd,  a  Catholic  institu- 
tion, takes  the  cases  which  could  be  committed  to  these  three  in- 
stitutions, and  therefore  unduly  increases  the  percentages  of  Protes- 
tants and  Hebrews  in  these  institutions.  In  the  three  institutional 
groups  which  would  be  little  affected  by  the  House  of  the  Good  Shep- 
herd, the  Catholics  have  the  highest  percentage  of  cases,  the  Protes- 
tants the  next  highest  and  the  Hebrews  a  relatively  small  percentage. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
XATIVITY  AND  COLOR  IN  RELATION  TO  DELINQUENCY 

THE  report  of  the  City  Council  Committee  on  Crime  in  Chicago 
states  that : 

"Statistics  furnished  in  the  police  report  show  that  the  native  Americans, 
white  and  colored  both,  have  a  percentage  of  arrests  and  convictions 
considerably  greater  than  their  percentage  of  population.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  various  foreign  groups  show  a  smaller  per  cent  of  convictions 
than  their  proportion  of  the  population  entitles  them  to  have.  It  is,  of 
course,  popularly  believed  that  immigration  is  a  cause  of  crime.  This 
belief  has  largely  been  due  to  a  comfortable  theory  that  we  are  superior 
to  the  people  of  Europe,  and  to  a  desire  to  shift  the  responsibility  for  our 
shortcomings  on  to  other  people.  No  facts  have  ever  been  found  to  sup-  . 
portM:his  belief.  The  Chicago  statistics  in  this  respect  agree  with  the 
statistics  furnished  by  the  United  States  census  and  the  Federal  Commis- 
sion on  Immigration.  The  report  of  the  commission  states  emphatically 
that  'no  satisfactory  evidence  has  yet  been  produced  to  show  that  immi- 
gration has  resulted  in  an  increase  in  crime  disproportionate  to  the  in- 
crease in  adult  population.  Such  comparable  statistics  of  crime  ancn 
population  as  it  has  been  possible  to  obtain  indicate  that  immigrants  are  J 
less  prone  to  commit  crime  than  are  native  Americans.'  The  special  cen-  \ 
sus  report  on  prisoners  after  analyzing  the  statistics  of  nativity  for 
the  whole  country  said  that  it  was  'evident  that  the  popular  belief  that 
the  foreign  born  are  filling  the  prisons  has  little  foundation  in  fact.' 
Chicago  statistics  furnish   further  confirmation  of  this  statement."^ 

Our  study  of  587  delinquent  women,  including  the  important 
types  of  women  offenders  throughout  New  York  State,  adds  to 
the  data  already  collected  in  the  reports  which  have  been  mentioned, 
by  showing  that  the  native  born  white  women  ofifenders  have  a 
representation  among  the  total  group  of  female  delinquents  slightly 
greater  than  their  percentage  of  the  general  population  in  the  state, 
the  native  born  colored  a  percentage  considerably  greater  than  their 

*  "Report  of  the  City  Council  Committee  on  Crime  of  the  City  of  Chicago," 
March  22,  1915,  p.  59. 

t67 


168     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

percentage  of  the  general  population,  and  the  total  foreign  born,  on 
the  other  hand,  a  percentage  considerably  less  than  their  proportion 
of  the  general  female  population  of  the  same  ages.  In  addition  to  a 
comparison  of  the  numbers  of  delinquent  women  within  the  nativity 
and  color  groups,  with  the  general  female  population  in  New  York 
City  over  fifteen  years  of  age,  several  comparisons  have  been  made  of 
the  degree  of  delinquency  between  the  total  foreign,  total  native, 
native  white,  and  native  colored.  These  comparisons  have  been  worked 
out  in  the  order  followed  in  Chapter  VI,  considering  first  the  nature 
of  the  present  offense  in  its  two  classifications,  the  number  of  previous 
convictions  followed  by  the  percentage  of  recidivists  and  first  offenders, 
and  finally  the  age  at  first  conviction,  nature  of  first  offense  and  first 
sentence. 

BIRTHPLACE   AND   COLOR 

It  is  very  desirable,  in  any  comprehensive  survey  of  the  relation  of 
nativity  and  color  to  delinquency,  to  show  comparisons  between  the 
various  foreign  countries  and  groups  of  countries  from  which  the  de- 
linquents come.  Unfortunately,  the  total  number  of  foreign  born 
women  in  our  entire  group  is  only  172,  and  the  largest  number  from 
any  one  foreign  country  is  twenty-four.  Even  by  grouping  together 
those  born  in  western  Europe  (65  cases)  or  southern  and  eastern 
Europe  (79  cases),  the  number  is  too  small  for  statistical  uses,  and 
it  would  not  be  safe  to  draw  even  the  most  general  conclusions  from 
so  few  observations. 

There  is,  however,  a  vast  amount  of  material  which  has  been  writ- 
ten to  show  the  comparisons  between  the  total  foreign  and  the  total 
native  born  in  their  relation  to  criminality.  To  supplement  that  mate- 
rial, we  have  used  our  total  foreign  born  group  which  we  believe,  to  be 
a  true  sample  of  the  foreign  born  women  delinquents  in  New  York 
State,  and  have  compared  this  group  with  both  the  native  white  and 
native  colored  found  in  the  same  institutions. 

The  following  frequency  table  shows  the  distribution  of  the  women 
studied,  by  the  country  of  birth  and  by  color.  It  will  be  noted  that 
there  are  four  colored  foreign  born  cases,  one  in  Auburn,  two  in  the 
Penitentiary,  and  one  in  the  Probation  group.  These  four  cases  were 
counted  among  the  total  foreign  born  throughout,  except  for  purposes 
of  comparison  with  the  Census  figures  where  they  were  added  to  the 
total  negro  group,  leaving  the  foreign  white  for  comparison  with  the 


NATIVITY  IN  RELATION  TO  DELINQUENCY         169 


TABLE  40 

BIRTHPLACE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups  by 

Birthplace 


Institutional  Groups 

Birthplace 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work-     Proba- 
house        tion 

Total 

Total   Native  Born 

88.1 

51.3 

68.4 

57.4 

70. 

0    77.2 

69.1 

Native  White 

68.3 
19.8 

11.9 

35.0 
16.3 

48.8 

68.4 
31.6 

38.0 
19.4 

42.6 

34.0      68.5 
36.0        8.7 

30.0      22.8 

51  5 

Native  Colored 

Total   Foreign  Born 

17.6 
30.9 

Austria 

3.0 

6.3 

'l.'3 

1.3 

2.5 

'3.8 
1.3 
5.0 

11.3 

'2;o 
1.3* 

'sis 

1.3 

1.3 

10.5 

Ts 

'4^0 
1.3 
4.0 

1^3 

'2^6 

2^6 
1.3 
1.3 

'i.'3 

4.6 

'2.'S 

"'9 
1.9 
1.9 
5.6 

2.8 
5.6 
1.9 

'".9 
.9 
.9 

2.8 
.9* 

'7;4 

"'9* 

2.( 

'2.'C 
4.C 
l.C 
7.C 
l.C 
l.C 

lie 

'5^0 

i.'o 
5.0 

)      6.5 
1.1 

1.1* 
iii 

)     '  i .'  i 

)      1.1 

1.1 

1.1 

i.'i 

2 '2 
1.1 
1.1 
3.3 

5.2 

Belgium 

.2 

Bermuda  Islands 

Canada 

1.0 

.2 

.7 

Cuba 

.2* 

Denmark 

.2 

England 

.7 

Finland 

.5 

France 

.7 

Germany 

3.1 

Hungary 

1.0 
1.0 
2.0 

1.4 

Ireland 

4.0 

Italy 

2.7 

New  Zealand 

.2 

Norway 

.4 

Nova  Scotia 

.2 

Austrian  Poland 

Russian  Poland 

Porto  Rico 

1.0 
1.0 

.4 

1.8 
.4* 

Rumania 

.4 

Russia 

Scotland 

1.0 
1.0 

4.3 
.5 

Sicily 

.4 

Sweden  - 

1.8 

Switzerland 

.2 

Syria 

.2 

British  W.  Indies 

.2* 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

101 

SO 

76 

108 

100 

92 

557 

♦Colored. 


170    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

native  white.-  Since  the  number  of  cases  is  too  small  to  regroup  satis- 
factorily, even  into  English-speaking  and  non-English-speakirig  foreign 
bom  women,  we  have  listed  the  countries  of  birth  in  alphabetical  order, 
with  no  attempt  to  classify  as  to  geographical  or  language  distribu- 
tion. It  is  obvious,  first  of  all,  from  this  table,  that  the  percentages 
of  native  and  foreign  born  women  vary  considerably  between  the  in- 
stitutional groups. 

Bedford  has  the  lowest  percentage  of  foreign  born  women.  This 
may  be  partly  explained  by  the  fact  that  Bedford  receives  commit- 
ments not  only  from  New  York  City,  but  also  from  the  counties  along 
the  Hudson  River  as  far  north  as  Rensselaer  County,  &nd  that  Bed- 
ford has  the  smallest  percentage  of  commitments  from  New  York  City 
where  there  is  a  higher  percentage  of  foreign  born  in  the  general  popu- 
lation than  in  the  rest  of  New  York  State.  On  the  other  hand.  Auburn 
Prison  has  the  highest  percentage  of  foreign  born  though  it  takes  pris- 
oners from  all  over  the  State.  A  later  table  will  partially  explain  this 
by  showing  that  a  larger  percentage  of  felons  is  found  among  the 
foreign  born  than  among  the  native  white  or  native  colored.  Since 
Auburn  is  distinctly  a  felony  group,  we  may,  then,  expect  a  large  per- 
centage of  its  women  to  be  foreign  born.  In  all  the  New  York  City 
groups,  which  are  made  up  almost  entirely  from  women  convicted  in 
New  York  City,  we  should  expect  to  find  a  higher  percentage  of  foreigia 
born  than  in  Bedford.  It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  the  Penitentiary, 
which  has  the  highest  percentage  of  felony  cases,  next  to  Auburn, 
has  the  second  highest  percentage  of  foreign  born  women.  The 
total  group  of  foreign  born,  30.9  per  cent  of  all  women  delinquents, 
which  we  shall  use  for  the  comparative  data  to  follow,  is  of  course, 
midway  between  the  extremes  of  the  Bedford  and  Auburn  groups, 
but  gives  a  picture  of  the  total  foreign  born  in  a  sample  drawn  from 
the  whole  of  New  York  State. 

If  we  turn  to  the  percentage  of  native  colored  within  the  various 
institutional  groups,  it  is  obvious  that  there  are  marked  differences 
here.     The  Magdalen  does  not  take  colored  women,  so  that  they  are 

"  For  the  most  part,  these  four  cases  are  not  extreme  enough  in  any  way  seri- 
ously to  affect  the  central  tendency  of  the  foreign  born  in  any  particular  group 
of  facts  used.  The  ages  are  as  follows :  27,  28,  31  and  27.  Nature  of  present 
offense :  offense  against  chastity,  1 ;  offenses  against  property  rights,  3.  Num- 
ber of  previous  convictions :  none  in  two  cases ;  1  in  one  case ;  10  in  one  case. 
Age  at  first  conviction :  27,  28,  28,  29.  First  offense :  offense  against  chastity,  1 ; 
offenses  against  property  rights,  3.  First  sentence :  Probation,  1 ;  Reformatory, 
1 ;  Penitentiary,  1  ;  State  Prison,  1. 


NATIVITY  IN  RELATION  TO  DELINQUENCY         171 

straightway  eliminated  from  the  discussion.  The  probation  group  has 
a  small  percentage  of  colored  because  of  the  meager  facilities  for 
supervising  colored  girls  on  probation.  Only  the  most  promising  col- 
ored girls  are  considered  for  probation  instead  of  an  institutional  sen- 
tence because  of  the  difficulty  of  looking  after  them  without  an  ade- 
quate staf¥  of  probation  officers.  Within  the  three  groups,  Bedford. 
Auburn  and  the  Penitentiary,  the  differences  in  the  percentages  of 
colored  women  are  not  marked.  The  very  high  percentage  of  colored 
women  in  the  Workhouse  is  undoubtedly  partly  due  to  the  practice  of 
giving  short  Workhouse  terms  to  first  or  second  offenders  who  might, 
if  they  had  been  white,  have  been  given  a  chance  on  probation;  and 
partly  due  to  the  fact  that  several  of  the  private  institutions  in  the 
city  refuse  to  take  colored  women,  for  whom,  then,  there  is  no  alterna- 
tive but  a  long  Reformatory  sentence  or  a  Workhouse  term.  The  total 
group  of  colored  women,  17.6  per  cent  of  all  the  women  in  the  study, 
will  be  used  in  the  comparisons  to  follow. 

(a)   Comparison  of  Nativity  and  Color  Betiveen  Delinquent  Women 
and  General  Female  Population  in  New  York  City 

In  comparing  the  delinquent  women  with  the  general  female 
population,  with  respect  to  nativity  and  color,  we  have  chosen  the  popu- 
lation of  New  York  City  rather  than  New  York  State  for  the  com- 
parison, and  have  used  only  the  delinquent  women  convicted  in  New 
York  City.  This  plan  seemed  more  advisable  since  the  distribution  of 
the  nativity  groups  varies  so  markedly  between  New  York  City  and 
New  York  State,  and  so  few  of  our  cases,  only  11.9  per  cent,  were 
convicted  in  the  counties  outside  of  Greater  New  York.  From  the 
Census  figures  for  New  York  City  in  1910,  we  were  able  to  get  only 
the  number  of  females  in  the  general  population  over  fifteen  years 
of  age.  Since  the  members  of  this  delinquent  group  are  all  supposedly 
sixteen  years  of  age  or  over,  there  will  be  a  slight  but  unavoidable  dif- 
ference in  the  basis  of  comparison. 

From  chart  9,  made  up  on  the  basis  of  the  total  group  of  delinquent 
women  convicted  in  New  York  City,  it  is  evident  that  the  native  white 
have  a  slightly  larger  representation  in  the  group  of  delinquents  than 
they  have  in  the  general  female  population  of  the  same  ages.  We 
might  also  compare  here  the  percentage  of  native  white  in  the  general 
population  with  the  percentages  of  native  white  delinquent  women  in 


172     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

the    Magdalen,    Penitentiary,    Workhouse    and    Probation    groups    in 
Table  40.^ 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  percentage  of  native  white  in  the  Mag- 
dalen is  68.4,  or  21.6  per  cent  larger  than  the  percentage  of  native 
white  in  the  general  female  population  in  New  York  City  over  fif- 
teen years.  In  the  Penitentiary  and  the  Workhouse,  the  native  white 
run  8.8  per  cent  and  12.8  per  cent  below  their  representation  of  the 
native  white  in  the  general  population.  In  the  Probation  group  the 
native  white  delinquents  have  21.7  per  cent  more  than  their  propor- 

PER  CENT 


NATIVE  V^HITE    j^-^ 


FOREIGN  WHTE    1°^ 


ALL  OTHERS 


I  I    GENERAL  FEMALE  POPULATION 

l^m    DELINQUENT  WOMEN  IX 

Chart  IX 

Percentage  Comparison  Showing  Nativity  and  Color  Among  (1),  General 
Female  Population  over  15  Years  of  Age  in  New  York  City  in  1910,  and  (2), 
481  Female  Delinquents  Convicted  in  New  York  City. 

tionate  representation  among  the  general  population.  Our  total  de- 
linquent group  in  New  York  City,  then,  while  being  only  slightly 
higher  in  the  percentage  of  native  white  than  the  same  class  in  the 
population  of  New  York  City,  varies  within  itself  as  to  proportions, 
two  of  the  institutional  groups  having  less,  and  two  of  the  groups 
more  than  their  proportionate  share  of  the  native  white. 

If  we  turn  to  the  group  of  negroes  in  Chart  IX,  we  note  that 
their  proportion  among  the  delinquent  women  is  markedly  higher 
than  we  should  expect  to  find  from  the  number  of  negro  women  over 

'  Since  Bedford  and  Auburn  each  have  a  number  of  commitments  from  dis- 
tricts outside  of  New  York  City  and  Table  40  includes  all  the  women  studied, 
both  from  New  York  City  and  New  York  State,  we  shall  not  compare  these 
two  groups  with  the  general  female  population  in  Chart  9. 


NATIVITY  IN  RELATION  TO  DELINQUENCY         173 

fifteen  years  of  age  in  New  York  City.  While  they  are  a  small  part, 
only  2.4  per  cent  of  the  population  in  question,  they  furnish  19.3  per 
cent  of  the  delinquents.  Within  the  New  York  City  institutional 
groups  in  Table  40,  it  will  not  be  possible  to  make  many  comparisons 
since  the  Magdalen  takes  no  negro  women.  The  Penitentiary,  how- 
ever, has  21.2  per  cent  of  its  group  negroes,*  the  Workhouse  36.0  per 
cent  and  the  Probation  group  9.8  per  cent.  The  Workhouse  is  particu- 
larly striking  in  having  fifteen  times  as  many  negro  women  as  one 
would  expect  from  the  female  negro  population  over  15  years  in  New 
York  City.  As  noted  before,  the  very  much  larger  proportion  of  col- 
ored in  the  Workhouse  as  compared  with  the  Probation  group  is  prob- 
ably accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  many  of  these  women  are  sent  to 
the  Workhouse  on  their  first  sentence  instead  of  being  given  probation. 

The  foreign  white  delinquent  women  have  a  far  smaller  percentage 
in  our  total  group  than  have  the  foreign  white  women  in  the  female 
population  over  fifteen  years  of  age  in  New  York  City.  ^This  is  worthy 
of  mention  in  view  of  the  fact  that  many  persons  still  believe  that 
the  amount  of  crime  in  this  country,  and  especially  in  New  York  City, 
is  greatly  increased  by  immigration.  New  York  City  with  a  foreign 
born  white  population  of  females  over  fifteen  years  amounting  to  50.8 
per  cent  of  its  total  female  population  offers  a  ready  field  for  those  of 
foreign  birth  who  intend  to  violate  the  law.  And  yet  they  contribute 
only  32.2  per  cent  of  our  total  delinquent  group.  In  none  of  the  in- 
stitutional groups  do  the  foreign  born  white  contribute  as  high  a  per- 
centage as  they  have  in  the  general  female  population  over  fifteen 
years,  and  in  most  instances  the  difference  is  very  marked. 

The  group  of  "All  Others"  shown  on  Chart  9  by  the  lowest  bar  is 
composed  of  1  case  only,  in  the  delinquent  group.  It  seems  absurd  to 
draw  any  comparison  based  on  1  case,  but  as  the  chart  shows,  the  per- 
centage of  delinquent  women  and  women  in  the  general  population 
included  under  "All  Others"  are  the  same. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  one  reason  why  the  foreign  born  ought 
to  have  a  smaller  percentage  in  the  criminal  class  than  in  the  general 
population  in  this  country  is  because  of  the  immigration  law  which 
excludes  from  admission  into  the  United  States  "persons  who  have 
been  convicted  of  or  admit  having  committed  a  felony  or  other  crime 
or  misdemeanor  involving  moral  turpitude,"  and  "prostitutes,  or 
women  or  girls  coming  into  the  United  States  for  the  purpose  of  pros- 

*In  the  Penitentiary  and  Probation  groups  add  percentage  of  foreign  born 
colored,  starred  in  Table  40,  to  native  colored,  to  obtain  total  negro  group. 


174     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

titution  or  for  any  other  immoral  purpose."^  Though  this  law  is  diffi- 
cult for  any  Board  of  Review  to  enforce  strictly  since  they  have  no 
knowledge  of  the  past  lives  of  the  immigrants  coming  before  them,  it 
is  probably  true  that  the  law  does  act  as  a  deterrent  on  some  criminals 
who  would  not  risk  being  returned  from  the  United  States.  The  num- 
ber of  aliens  who  are  actually  debarred  at  the  tim.e  of  coming  to  this 
country  or  later  deported  as  criminals,  however,  was  only  912  or  .8 
per  cent  of  the  total  aliens  admitted  to  the  United  States  from  July  1, 
1913,  to  June  30,  1914.'^  Though  the  number  excluded  as  criminal 
aliens  is  small,  this  probably  has  a  slight  effect  on  the  percentage  of 
foreign  born  delinquents  in  New  York  City. 

AGE  CLASSIFIED  BY  NATIVITY  AND  COLOR 

Before  proceeding  to  the  nature  of  delinquency  among  the  nativity 
groups  in  our  study,  we  shall  consider  the  question  of  age  at  present 
conviction,  since  the  age  factor  will  to  a  certain  extent  affect  the  num- 
ber of  convictions  to  be  discussed  later.  The  following  table  (Table 
41)  gives  the  frequency  distribution  of  age  for  all  groups.'^  At  first 
glance,  it  is  obvious  that  the  foreign  born  have  the  longest  range  of 
ages,  the  native  white  the  next  in  order  and  the  native  colored  the 
shortest  in  range.  On  the  other  hand,  the  massing  of  ages  appears 
to  be  in  the  earlier  age  groups,  particularly  in  the  native  white  group. 

In  order  to  compare  the  central  tendencies  of  the  different  nativity 
groups,  the  following  three  tables  are  presented. 

Table  42  indicates  that  the  mean  age  of  the  native  white  is  26.92 
years,  or  slightly  younger  than  the  mean  age  of  the  native  colored 
group,  27.00  years.  Since  the  ratio  of  the  actual  difference  between 
the  means  to  the  standard  deviation  of  the  differences  is  only  .08,  the 
chances  are  even  that  the  observed  differences  might  have  occurred  by 
chance.  There  is,  therefore,  no  demonstrable  difference  between  the 
mean  age  of  the  native  colored  and  the  native  white.  The  comparison 
of  the  standard  deviations  of  the  two  groups,  however,  indicates  a 
wider  scattering  of  ages  in  the  native  white  than  in  the  native  colored 
group.  The  ratio  of  this  difference  to  the  standard  deviation  of  the 
difference  is  2.91,   which  indicates  that  there  is   with  little   doubt   a 

''Immigration  Act  of  Feb.  20,  1907,  as  Amended  by  the  Acts  of  March  26, 
1910,  and  March  4,  1913.     Section  2. 

""Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioner  General  of  Immigration,"  pp.  104 
and  108. 

'  All  of  the  following  discussion  in  this  chapter  is  based  on  the  total  group 
of  women  delinquents  committed  from  all  of  New  York  State. 


NATIVITY  IN  RELATION  TO  DELINQUENCY         175 


TABLE  41 

AGE  AT  PRESENT  CONVICTION 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  Classified  by  Nativity  and 

Color 

Total  Group 


Nativity 

&.ND  Color 

Age 

Total 

Total 

Total 

Native 

Native 

Foreign  Born 

Native  Born 

White 

Colored 

14  to  18  years  

1.2 

10.1 

11.2 

7.1 

7.4 

18    "    22       "     

12.9 

23.1 

25.8 

15.3 

20.0 

22    "    26       "     

15.8 

21.3 

18.5 

29.6 

19.6 

26    "    30       "     

14.6 

15.8 

15.7 

16.3 

15.5 

30    "    34       "     

16.4 

9.4 

9.1 

10.2 

11.5 

34    "    38       "     

11.1 

6.5 

5.2 

10.2 

7.9 

38    "    42       "     ....... 

7.6 

6.2 

5.6 

8.2 

6.7 

42    "    46       "     

5.9 

1.8 

2.1 

1.0 

3.1 

46    "    50       "     

4.1 

3.1 

3.8 

1.0 

3.4 

50    "    54       "     

4.1 

1.4 

1.1 

1.0 

2.0 

54    "    58       "     

2.3 

.8 

1.1 

1.3 

58    "    62       "     

1.8 

.8 

1.1 

1.1 

62    "    66       "     

1.2 

.4 

66    "    70       "     

.6 

.2 

70    "    74       "     

.6 

.2 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

171 

385 

287 

98 

556 

TABLE  42 

NATIVE  WHITE  AND  NATIVE  COLORED 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Age  at  Present 
Conviction  for  Native  White  and  Native  Colored 


Native 
White 

Native 
Colored 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

26.92 
+  .560 

27.00 
±761 

-.08 

.08 

2 

Cm 

(T 

9.48 
+  .396 

7.54 
+  .538 

1.95 

2.91 

556 

(J  a 

Cases 

287 

98 

176     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

valid  difference  in  the  variability  of  the  tw^o  groups,  with  the  native 
white  having  a  wider  scattering. 

Having  indicated  that  there  is  no  demonstrable  difference  between 
the  mean  ages  of  the  native  white  and  native  colored,  we  should  be 
justified  in  comparing  the  ages  of  the  total  native  born  and  the  total 
foreign  born  women.  But,  because  of  the  apparently  valid  difference 
between  the  dispersion  of  ages  in  the  native  white  and  native  colored 
groups,  we  have  calculated  the  comparison  of  the  differences  between 
the  mean  ages  of  the  native  white  and  total  foreign  born — 26.9  vs. 
32.9.  The  ratio  of  the  difference  of  the  means  to  the  standard  devia- 
tion of  the  differences  (5.92)  indicates  that  there  is  undoubtedly 
a  valid  difference  between  the  native  white  and  total  foreign  born, 
with  reference  to  their  mean  age,  with  a  tendency  for  the  foreign  born 
delinquent  women  to  be  older  than  the  native  born.  A  difference, 
though  less  striking,  in  the  dispersion  of  the  ages  of  the  two  groups  is 
also  seen  in  the  ratio  of  1.89,  with  the  foreign  born  having  a  wider 
scattering  of  ages. 

TABLE  43 
NATIVE  WHITE  AND  TOTAL  FOREIGN  BORN 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Age  at  Present 
Conviction  for  Native  White  and  Total  Foreign  Bom 


Native 
White 

Total 
Foreign   Born 

Difference 

d 
CTd 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

Cm. 

26.92 
±.560 

32.85 
±.830 

-5.92 

5.92 

00 

(7 

9.48 
±.396 

10.82 

±.587 

-1.34 

1.89 

34 

ffa 

Cases 

287 

170 

Since  there  is  a  valid  difference  between  the  mean  ages  of  the 
native  white  and  total  foreign  born,  and  no  demonstrable  difference 
between  the  mean  ages  of  native  white  and  native  colored,  we  should 
expect,  as  shown  in  Table  44,  to  find  a  real  difference  between  the 
mean  ages  of  the  total  native  and  the  total  foreign  born.  The  ratio 
6.22  indicates  a  valid  difference  between  the  mean  ages  of  the  two 
groups  and  the  ratio  2.67  indicates  that  there  is  also  a  valid  difference 
in  the  dispersion,  the  total  foreign  born  group  having  a  wider  scatter- 
ing.   It  will  be  well  to  keep  this  difference  in  mind  for  the  later  dis- 


NATIVITY  IN  RELATION  TO  DELINQUENCY         177 

TABLE  44 

TOTAL  NATIVE  BORN  AND  TOTAL  FOREIGN  BORN 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Age  at  Present 
Conviction  for  Total  Native  Bom  and  Total  Foreign  Bom 


Total 
Native  Born 

Total 
Foreign  Born 

Difference 

d 
aa 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

Cm 

26.94 
±.460 

32.85 
±.830 

-5.90 

6.22 

00 

(7 

(7'<7       

9.03 
±.325 

10.82 

±.587 

-1.79 

2.67 

263 

Cases 

385 

170 

cussion  of  the  criminal  record, — that  the  foreign  born  group  show  an 
older  mean  age  than  either  the  native  white  or  total  native  born,  and 
also  a  wider  scattering  than  is  found  among  the  native  white  or  total 
native  born. 

Very  little  has  been  done  in  gaging  the  nature  and  extent  of  crim- 
inality among  the  foreign  born.    Miss  Grace  Abbott  writes : 

"The  United  States  Immigration  Commission  made  'the  central  fea- 
ture' of  its  investigation  the  determination  of  how  'the  criminality  of 
the  immigrant  differs  from  that  of  the  native  born'  (Vol.  36,  p.  13).  The 
material  available  or  secured  by  the  commission  was,  however,  very 
meager  and  no  attempt  was  made  to  discover  to  what  extent  apparent 
tendencies  on  the  part  of  certain  races  to  commit  certain  kinds  of  crime 
were  the  result  of  local  conditions  rather  than  race."^ 

As  noted  before,  our  numbers  from  individual  foreign  countries  are 
too  small  for  use,  but  with  the  total  foreign  born  group  we  have  been 
able  to  draw  some  conclusions  as  to  the  nature  and  extent  of  their 
delinquency. 


NATURE  OF  PRESENT  OFFENSE,  CLASSIFIED  BY  NATIVITY  GROUPS 

(a)  New  York  City  Police  Department  Classification 

Table  45,  followed  by  Chart  X,  shows  the  nature  of  the  present 
offense  classified  by  the  New  York  City  Police  Department  classifica- 

*  Abbott,  Grace.  "Immigration  and  Crime."  (Report  of  Committee  "G" 
of  the  Institute.)  Journal  of  the  American  Institute  of  Criminal  Law  and 
Criminology.     Vol.  VI,  No.  4,  Nov.,  1915,  p.  528. 


178     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

TABLE  45 

NATURE  OF  PRESENT  OFFENSE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Nativity  and  Color 

Groups,  Classified  by  New  York  City  Police  Department 

Classification 


Nativity  and  Color 

Nature  of  Offense 

Total 

Foreign 

Born 

Total 
Native 
Born 

Native 
White 

Native 
Colored 

Total 

Offenses  against  the  Person 

Offenses  against  Chastity 

Offenses    against    Family    and 
Children 

Offenses  against  Regulations  for 
Public    Health,    Safety    and 
Policy 

Offenses  against  Administration 
of  Government 

8.7 
41.9 

1.7 

9.3 

.6 

34.3 

3.5 

3.4 

60.0 
2.3 

9.9 

.5 

19.7 

4.2 

2.8 
62.0 

3.1 

9.4 

.7 

17.4 

4.5 

5.1 
54.1 

11.2 

26.5 
3.1 

5.0 
54.4 

2.2 

9.7 
5 

Offenses  against  Property  Rights . 
General  Criminality 

24.2 
4  0 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

172 

385 

287 

98 

557 

tion  for  the  nativity  and  color  groups.  A  first  glance  at  the  chart  will 
show  what  was  evident  in  a  comparison  of  the  institutional  groups, 
that  the  offenses  against  chastity  have  the  first  place  and  offenses 
against  property  rights  second,  in  each  of  the  three  nativity  groups. 
The  ratio  between  the  two  varies,  however,  in  the  groups,  the  foreign 
born  having  the  smallest  percentage  of  offenders  against  chastity,  and 
the  largest  percentage  of  offenders  against  property  rights,  while  the 
native  white  have  the  largest  percentage  of  offenders  against  chastity 
and  the  smallest  percentage  of  offenders  against  property  rights.  In 
each  of  these  two  large  divisions  of  offenses,  the  native  colored  stand 
on  middle  ground.  The  other  divisions  of  the  classification  show  that 
the  foreign  born  have  a  percentage  of  offenses  against  the  person  three 
times  as  large  as  that  of  the  native  white,  but  less  than  twice  as  large 


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180       STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

as  that  of  the  native  colored.  The  offenders  against  the  family  and 
children,  and  the  offenders  against  administration  of  government  are 
too  few  to  use  for  comparison,  since  there  are  only  a  total  of  twelve 
cases  in  the  one  and  three  in  the  other.  The  offenders  against  regula- 
tions for  public  health  have  their  largest  percentage  in  the  native  col- 
ored group,  all  convicted  of  possessing  or  selling  drugs.  The  general 
criminality  group  shows  no  marked  differences  in  percentages  between 
the  nativity  groups.  Because  the  numbers  are  largest  and  because  the 
difference  is  more  marked,  the  most  important  conclusion  we  can  draw 
from  this  table,  is  that  the  foreign  born  have  a  noticeably  smaller  per- 
centage of  offenders  against  chastity,  and  a  noticeably  larger  percent- 
age of  offenders  against  property  rights  than  have  either  the  native 
white  or  native  colored. 

(b)  Felonies  and  Misdemeanors 

A  natural  deduction  from  the  preceding  table  is  that  the  foreign 
born  probably  have  a  higher  percentage  of  felons  than  have  the  other 
groups.  In  Chart  III,  it  appeared  that  the  offenders  against  property 
rights  are  made  up  more  largely  of  felons  than  is  the  group  of  offend- 
ers against  chastity  rights.  Table  46  and  Chart  XI  show  that  the 
foreign  born  have  a  percentage  of  felons  considerably  over  twice  that 
of  the  native  white  and  nearly  twice  that  of  the  native  colored.  In 
other  words,  about  a  third  of  the  foreign  born  were  convicted  of 
felonies  at  the  time  we  studied  them,  while  approximately  an  eighth 
of  the  native  white  and  a  fifth  of  the  native  colored  were  convicted 
of  felonies.  Conversely,  of  course,  the  percentage  of  misdemeanants 
or  minor  offenders  is  much  larger  among  the  native  white  and  native 
colored  than  among  the  foreign  born. 

The  Special  Report  of  the  Census  on  Prisoners  and  Juvenile  De- 
linquents in  Institutions  states  that: 

"It  is  evident  that  the  popular  belief  that  the  foreign  born  are  filling 
the  prisons  has  little  foundation  in  fact.  It  would  seem,  however,  that  they 
are  slightly  more  prone  than  the  native  whites  to  commit  minor  offenses."  ^ 

Our  data  would  not  bear  out  this  observation,  so  far  as  women  are 

concerned.     On  the  contrary,  we  might  say  that  within  our  group  of 

delinquents   there   is   a   very  considerable   tendency   for  the   foreign 

born  women  to  commit  more  serious  offenses  than  do  the  native  born 

within  the  same  group. 

'  "Special  Report  of  the  Census  Office :  Prisoners  and  Juvenile  Delinquents  in 
Institutions."     1904,  pp.  18-19,  40-41. 


NATIVITY  IN  RELATION  TO  DELINQUENCY         181 

EXTENT  OF    DELINQUENCY  CLASSIFIED  BY  NATIVITY  AND  COLOR 

We  have  seen  so  far  that  the  foreign  born  group  of  women  delin- 
quents shows  a  smaller  percentage  among  our  total  delinquent  group 
than  their  proportion  of  the  population  entitles  them  to  have,  but  that 
among  the  foreign  born  w^ho  are  convicted  there  is  a  tendency  for 
them  to  commit  the  more  serious  offenses.  A  natural  sequence  to  this 
will  be  to  measure  the  extent  of  delinquency  among  those  of  the  foreign 
born  who  reach  the  courts,  and  compare  this  with  the  amount  of  de- 

TABLE  46 

NATURE  OF  PRESENT  OFFENSE 

Number  and  Per  Cent  of  Delinquent  Women  Convicted  of  Felonies 
and   Misdemeanors    Classified   by   Nativity   and    Color 


Natube  of  Present  Offense 

Total 

Nativity  and  Color 

Felonies 

Misdemeanors 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Total  Foreign  Born 

Total  Native  Born 

58 
59 

33.7 

15.3 

114 
326 

66.3 

84.7 

172 
385 

100.0 
100.0 

Native  White 

Native  Colored 

40 
19 

13.9 
19.4 

247 
79 

86.1 
80.6 

287 
98 

100.0 

100.0 

Total 

117 

21.0 

440 

79.0 

557 

100.0 

FOREIGN  BORN 
NATIVE  WHITE 
NATIVE  COLORED 


PER  CENT 
20  40  60  80 


I  I     MISOEMBANANTS  XI 

Chart  XI 

Per  cent  Distribution  of  Felons  and  Misdemeanants  Classified  by  Nativity 

and   Color. 


182     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

linquency  among  the  native  born.  The  only  measure  of  extent  of  de- 
linquency which  we  shall  use  in  this  connection  is  the  number  of  pre- 
vious convictions. 

(a)  Number  of  Prcznous  Conznctions 

(1)  Comparison  of  Differences  ulmong  Nativity  Groups. — Table 
47  shows  the  range  of  number  of  previous  convictions  among  the 
various  nativity  groups,  and  indicates  that  the  range  is  longest  in  the 
native  white  group,  and  is  of  equal  length  among  the  foreign  born 
and  native  colored.  This  table  taken  in  connection  with  the  three 
following  tables  is  of  value  in  enabling  us  to  make  comparisons  between 
the  mean  number  of  convictions  within  the  various  groups. 

TABLE  47 
NUMBER  OF  PREVIOUS  CONVICTIONS 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  Classified  by  Nativity 

and  Color 


Nativity  j 

iND  Color 

Number  of  Previous  Convictions 

Total 

Foreign 

Born 

Total 
Native 
Born 

Native 
White 

Native 
Colored 

Total 

0 

1 

2                   

52.3 
19.2 
11.6 
4.7 
4.1 
2.9 
1.2 

"!6 
.6 
.6 
.6 

".Q 
.6 
.6 

41.3 

24.9 

10.7 

8.1 

\A 

3.1 

1.6 

2.1 

.8 

.8 

.5 

.3 

.5 

"!3 
.3 
.3 
.3 

45.0 

27.2 

9.8 

7.3 

3.5 

1.7 

.7 

1.4 

.4 

.7 

.7 

.4 

.4 

'"a 
"a 

A 

30.6 
18.4 
13.3 
10.2 

7.1 
7.1 
4.1 
4.1 
2.0 
1.0 

"i;6 
'i;6 

44.7 
23.2 
11.0 

3 

7.0 

4 

5           

4.3 
3.1 

6 

7 

1.4 
1.4 

8   

.7 

9               

.7 

10 

.5 

11 

12 

13       .    .           

.4 
A 
.2 

14 

18 

20 

31 

.4 
.4 
.2 
.2 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

172 

385 

287 

98 

557 

NATIVITY  IN  RFXATION  TO  DELINQUENCY         183 

We  shall  first  compare  the  mean  number  of  convictions  and  the 
amount  of  variation  about  tliese  means  for  the  native  white  and  native 
colored  groups.  Table  48  suggests  that  the  native  colored  tend  to 
have  been  convicted  more  often  than  the  native  white  since  the  mean 
number  of  convictions  in  the  one  is  2.49  and  in  the  other  only  1.52. 
Since  the  ratio  of  the  difference  of  the  means  to  the  standard  de- 
viation of  the  difference  is  2.81,  it  would  seem  that  this  apparent  dif- 
ference is  almost  certainly  valid.  From  a  comparison  of  the  standard 
deviations,  however,  it  .is  clear  that  there  is  no  demonstrable  difference 
in  the  dispersion  of  the  two  groups. 

Having  shown  that  there  is  a  significant  tendency  for  the  native 
colored  to  have  a  larger  number  of  convictions  than  the  native  white, 
it  is  necessary  for  us  to  compare  the  total  foreign  born  with  the  native 
white  before  extending  this  comparison  to  the  total  native  born  and 
total  foreign  born.  A  comparison  of  the  means  alone  would  suggest 
that  the  native  white  tend  to  have  been  convicted  slightly  more  often 
than  the  foreign  born,  but  since  the  difference  between  the  means  is 
only  .36  times  the  standard  deviation  of  the  difference,  we  have  no 
evidence  that  this  is  more  than  the  chance  variation  which  might  occur 
through  random  sampling.     (See  Table  49.) 

Since  there  is  no  demonstrable  difference  in  number  of  convictions 
between  the  native  white  and  the  total  foreign  born,  and  since  it  has 
been  shown  (Table  48)  that  there  is  a  tendency  for  the  native  colored 
to  have  a  larger  mean  number  of  convictions  than  the  native  white,  we 
are  justified  in  stating  that  there  must  also  be  a  valid  difference  in  the 

TABLE  48 

NATIVE  WHITE  AND  NATIVE  COLORED 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Number  of 
Previous  Convictions  for  Native  White  and  Native  Colored 


Native 
White 

Native 
Colored 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

1.52 
+  .175 

2.49 
±.299 

-.97 

2.81 

400 

Cm 

(T 

2.96 
+  .124 

2.96 
+  .211 

.01 

.02 

2 

(Ja 

Cases 

287 

98 

184     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

TABLE  49 

TOTAL  FOREIGN  BORN  AND  NATIVE  WHITE 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and   Standard  Deviations  of  Number  of 
Previous  Convictions  for  Total  Foreign  Born  and  Native  White 


Total 
Foreign  Born 

Native 
White 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

1.42 
±.201 

1.52 
±.175 

-.10 

.36 

3 

Cm  .  .                  

0" 

2.64 
±.142 

2.96 
±.124 

-.32 

1.70 

22 

fffX 

Cases 

172 

287 

mean  numbei-  of  convictions  of  the  native  colored  and  the  total  foreign 
born,  the  native  colored  having  a  larger  mean  number  of  convictions. 

For  comparison  w^ith  other  groups  of  data,  it  may  be  well  to  com- 
bhie  the  native  white  and  native  colored  and  compare  the  mean  num- 
ber of  convictions  and  the  standard  deviation  for  the  total  native  born 
with  the  same  constants  among  the  foreign  born.  Table  SO  shows  that 
in  a  comparison  of  the  means,  the  total  native  born  have  a  slightly 
larger  mean  number  of  convictions  than  the  total  foreign  born.  Since 
this  difference  is  only  1.35  times  the  standard  deviation  of  the  dif- 
ference,   our    figures    fail    to    offer    convincing    evidence    of    a    real 


TABLE  50 

TOTAL  FOREIGN  BORN  AND  TOTAL  NATIVE  BORN 

Comparison  of  the   Means  and   Standard  Deviations  of  Number  cf 

Previous   Convictions   for   Total   Foreign   Bom   and 

Total  Native  Bom 


Total 
Foreign  Born 

Total 
Native  Born 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

1.42 
±.201 

1.77 
±.152 

-.34 

1.35 

11 

(Tja 

2.64 
±.142 

2.99 
±.108 

-.35 

1.95 

39 

Cff. .  : 

Cases 

172 

385 

NATIVITY  IN  RELATION  TO  DELINQUENCY         185 

difference  between  the  native  and  the  foreign  born  with  respect  to  this 
factor. 

In  interpreting  the  extent  of  deUnquency  of  the  groups  distin- 
guished by  nativity  and  color,  therefore,  it  will  be  well  to  bear  in  mind 
(1)  that  the  native  colored  are  distinguished  from  both  the  native  white 
and  the  foreign  born  by  having  a  larger  mean  number  of  convictions, 
and  (2)  that,  although  the  foreign  born  show  a  slightly  smaller  mean 
number  of  convictions  than  do  either  the  native  white  or  the  total  native 
born,  the  evidence  fails  to  justify  our  considering  these  differences 
demonstrably  valid. 

(2)  Comparison  of  Differences  Between  Felons  and  Misdemeanants 
in  Nativity  Groups. — It  will  be  of  interest  to  turn  from  the  total  group 
of  delinquent  women  classified  by  nativity  and  color  to  their  classifica- 
tion into  felons  and  misdemeanants,  keeping  in  mind  the  fact  that  the 
foreign  born  have  a  larger  percentage  of  their  total  group  felons  than 
have  either  the  native  white  or  native  colored. 

Table  51  shows  the  distribution  of  number  of  convictions  for  na- 
tivity groups  among  both  the  felons  and  misdemeanants.  A  hasty 
glance  shows  that  the  range  of  convictions  for  the  foreign  born  felons 
is  shorter  than  for  any  of  the  other  groups  of  felons,  and  that  it  is 
slightly  longer  among  the  native  white  and  total  native  born  misde- 
meanants than  among  the  foreign  born  or  native  colored  misdemean- 
ants. 

In  order  to  determine  whether  there  is  a  valid  difference  in  the 
number  of  previous  convictions  between  the  total  foreign  and  the  na- 
tive born  felons,  the  constants  of  the  two  groups  have  been  compared. 
The  total  native  born  felons  were  used  instead  of  the  native  white  and 
native  colored  separately  since  the  numbers  were  too  small  for  this 
separate  use.  Table  52  shows  that  the  native  born  felons  have  a 
larger  mean  number  of  convictions  than  have  the  total  foreign  born 
felons,  and  that  this  observed  difference  is  more  than  three  times  the 
standard  deviation  of  the  difference. 

From  this  we  are  entirely  safe  in  saying  that  there  appears  to  be  a 
valid  difference  between  the  mean  number  of  previous  convictions  of 
the  total  native  born  and  total  foreign  born  felons,  with  the  native 
born  felons  having  a  considerably  larger  mean  number  of  previous 
convictions.  The  difference  in  the  dispersion  of  the  groups  also  ap- 
pears to  be  valid,  with  the  native  born  felons  having  a  much  wider 
scattering. 


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NATIVITY  IN  RELATION  TO  DELINQUENCY         187 

TABLE  52 

TOTAL  NATIVE  BORN  FELONS  AND  TOTAL  FOREIGN  BORN 

FELONS 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and   Standard  Deviations   of  Number  of 

Previous  Convictions  of  Total  Native  Born  Felons  and  Total 

Foreign  Bom  Felons 


Total 

Native  Born 

Felons 

Total 

Foreign   Born 

Felons 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

2.53 

±.489 

.79 
±.209 

1.73 

3.26 

1667 

(Tm 

(T 

a<T 

3.75 
±.345 

1.60 

±.148 

2.16 

5.74 

00 

Cases 

59 

58 

Though  it  would  be  possible,  so  far  as  actual  numbers  are  con- 
cerned, to  make  a  comparison  between  the  native  white  or  colored  and 
the  total  foreign  born  misdemeanants,  we  shall  use  only  the  total  na- 
tive born  with  the  total  foreign  born  (Table  53)  so  that  this  ratio  will 
be  comparable  with  that  in  Table  52.  While  a  comparison  of  the  means 
alone  in  Table  53  would  suggest  that  the  foreign  born  misdemeanants 


TABLE  53 

TOTAL  NATIVE  BORN  MISDEMEANANTS  AND  TOTAL 
FOREIGN  BORN  MISDEMEANANTS 

Comparison   of   the   Means   and   Standard  Deviations  of  Number  of 

Previous  Convictions  of  Total  Native  Bom  Misdemeanants 

and  Total  Foreign  Bom  Misdemeanants 


Total 
Native  Born 
Misde- 
meanants 

Total 
Foreign  Born 
Misde- 
meanants 

Difference 

d 

CTd 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

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1.63 
±.156 

1.75 

±.280 

-.12 

.37 

3 

Cm 

cr 

2.81 
±.110 

2.99 
±.198 

-.18 

.79 

5 

aff 

Cases .  . 

326 

114 

188     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

have  a  slightly  larger  mean  number  of  convictions,  the  ratio  of  the 
difference  between  the  two  to  the  standard  deviation  of  the  difference 
is  only  .Z7 ,  indicating  that  there  is  no  demonstrable  difference  between 
the  central  tendencies  of  the  two  groups  of  offenders.  The  difference 
between  the  standard  deviations  of  the  two  groups  is  not  demonstra- 
bly valid. 

(/;)    Recidivists    and    First    Offenders    Among    Natknty   and 
Color  Groups 

If  we  turn  to  Table  54  showing  the  percentage  of  recidivists  and 
first  offenders  among  the  felons  and  misdemeanants,  as  well  as  among 
the  total  group  of  delinquents  classified  by  nativity  and  color,  we  note 
that  within  each  of  the  groups  the  foreign  born  have  a  smaller  per- 
centage of  recidivists  than  have  either  the  native  colored,  native  white 
or  total  native  born.  In  each  group  the  native  colored  have  the  high- 
est percentage  of  recidivists,  the  native  white  and  total  native  born 
the  next  highest,  and  the  foreign  born  the  smallest  percentage.  These 
groups  differ  from  one  another  by  more  marked  degrees,  however, 
among  the  felons  than  among  the  misdemeanants.  In  the  total  group, 
including  both  felons  and  misdemeanants,  52.3  per  cent  of  the  foreign 
born  have  had  no  previous  convictions,  while  only  44.9  per  cent  of 
the  native  white  and  30.6  per  cent  of  the  native  colored  have  had  no 
previous  convictions.  Chart  XII  presents  in  graphic  form  the  data 
regarding  recidivism  for  the  three  nativity  groups. 


20  40  60  80  100 


FOREIGN  BORN 


NATIVE  WHITE 


NATIVE  COLORED 


RECIDIVISTS 


IZZI 


FIRST  OFFENDERS 


Chart   XII 

Per    cent    Distribution    of    Recidivists    and    First    Offenders    Classified    by 
Nativity  and  Color. 


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190     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

(1)  Comparison  With  Male  Felons  in  Suuj  Simj. — If  we  use 
only  the  felons  in  Table  54,  we  have  material  comparable  to  the 
study  made  by  Dr.  Glueck  at  Sing  Sing  of  608  male  felons^^  This 
is  illustrated  in  Chart  XIII  which  makes  four  comparisons.  The 
first  of  these,  between  the  female  foreign  born  felons  and  the  male 
foreign  born  felons,  shows  that  there  is  a  much  smaller  percentage  of 
recidivists  among  the  female  foreign  born  felons  than  among  the  males, 


FEMALE  FELONS 


MALE  FELONS 


FEMALE  FELONS 


MALE  FELONS 


FOREIGN  BORN 

PER  CENT 
20  40  60 


NATIVE  BORN 


EZ3 


RECIDIVISTS 


FIRST  OFFENDERS 


Chart  XIII 

Comparison  of  the  Percentages  of  Recidivists  and  First  Offenders  Among 
the  Foreign  and  Native-Born  of  117  Female  Felons  and  608  Male  Felons  in 
Sing  Sing  Prison. 


a  difference  between  39.7  per  cent  of  recidivists  in  the  one  and  49.8  per 
cent  in  the  other.  A  second  comparison  shows  that  the  native  born 
female  felons  have  a  smaller  percentage  of  recidivists  than  the  native 
born  male  felons,  a  difference  between  57.6  per  cent  in  the  one  case 
and  75.9  per  cent  in  the  other.  The  third  comparison  has  been  made 
in  Table  54,  showing  that  the  foreign  born  female  felons  have  a  much 
smaller  percentage  of  recidivists  than  the  native  born  female  felons. 
The  fourth  comparison  between  foreign. born  male  felons  and  native 
born  male  felons  shows  that  among  the  male  felons  also,  the  foreign 
born  have  a  percentage  of  recidivists  very  much  smaller  than  the  per- 

"  Op.  cit.,  p.  140. 


NATIVITY  IN  RELATION  TO  DELINQUENCY        191 

centage  of  recidivists  among  the  native  born.  In  a  comparison  betw^een 
the  nativity  groups,  then,  in  each  case  the  foreign  born  show  a  smaller 
percentage  of  recidivists,  and  in  a  comparison  between  felons  classified 
by  sex,  the  foreign  born  female  felons  show  the  smaller  percentage  of 
recidivists.^^ 

(c)   Relationship  Betzveen  Length  of  Time  in  this  Country  and 
Number  of  Previous  Convictions 

(1)  Number  of  Previous  Convictions  and  Years  in  United  States. 
— Before  concluding  the  discussion  of  the  extent  of  criminality  among 
the  foreign  and  native  born,  we  shall  consider  the  objection  that  the 
foreign  born  delinquents  are  not  represented  in  proportion  to  their 
quota  in  the  general  population  and  have  a  smaller  percentage  of 
the  repeated  offenders  because  they  may  have  been  in  this  country 
too  short  a  time  to  have  come  into  conflict  with  the  law  and  to  have  had 
many  convictions.  In  order  to  find  out  whether  there  seems  to  be  any 
relation  between  the  number  of  convictions  of  the  foreign  born  and 
the  length  of  time  in  the  United  States  or  the  age  at  coming  to  the 
United  States,  the  two  following  correlations  are  presented. 

Table  55  shows  that  the  range  of  number  of  years  in  the  United 
States  is  from  1  to  46  years,  with  the  mean  number  of  years  14.04 ± 
9.17.  The  coefficient  of  correlation  (.33±.069)  would  indicate  that 
there  is  a  small,  but  significant,  relationship  between  the  length  of  time 
in  this  country  and  the  number  of  convictions.  The  correlation  ratios 
are  slightly  larger,  .39±.065  and  .36±.067.  The  tendency  toward  a 
higher  record  of  convictions  with  a  longer  residence  in  this  country  is 
very  evident  from  the  table. 

(2)  Number  of  Previous  Convictions  and  Age  at  Coming  to  the 
United  States. — Table  56  correlates  the  number  of  previous  convictions 
with  the  age  at  coming  to  the  United  States  instead  of  with  the  number 
of  years  in  the  United  States  as  in  Table  55.  The  mean  age  at  coming 
to  this  country  is  18.88±:9.29  years.  The  small  negative  coeffi- 
cient of  correlation,  — .17,  only  slightly  more  than  twice  its  stand- 
ard deviation  of  .074,  would  indicate  that  the  relationship  is  small,  hut 
that  there  is  a  slight  tendency  for  the  foreign  born  who  come  to  the 
United  States  when  young  to  have  a  larger  number  of  convictions 

"  As  stated  in  Chapter  6,  p.  127,  Dr.  Glueck  has  used  the  term  "recidivist" 
to  mean  an  individual  who  has  served  a  previous  sentence  in  prison,  while  our 
use  of  recidivist  includes  all  who  have  had  a  previous  conviction.  His  per- 
centage of  recidivists  would,  therefore,  be  proportionately  larger  if  put  on  a 
basis  exactly  comparable  with  ours. 


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194     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

than  those  who  come  later  in  life.  The  correlation  ratios  are  slightly- 
larger,  .20it.074  and  .24  ±:  .072.  Inspection  of  the  table  shows  clearly 
that  those  having  fewer  convictions  were  older  when  they  came  to  this 
country  than  those  having  many,  and  that  the  number  of  convictions 
decreases  with  increase  in  age  of  coming  to  this  country. 

Since,  however,  both  the  variables  in  the  above  correlation — num- 
ber of  previous  convictions  and  age  at  coming  to  this  country — are 
more  or  less  closely  related  to  the  factor  of  present  age,  we  have  com- 
puted the  partial  correlation  coefficient  for  the  number  of  previous  con- 
victions with  the  age  at  coming  to  the  United  States,  for  constant 
present  age.^^  This  coefficient  we  find  to  be  — .377±.066.  In  other 
words,  when  we  eliminate  the  effect  of  actual  age  a  higher  degree  of 
relationship  is  observed  between  frequency  of  conviction  and  an  early 
age  of  immigration. 

Accordingly,  from  both  the  correlation  between  number  of  con- 
victions and  years  in  the  United  States,  and  that  between  number  of 
convictions  and  age  at  coming  to  this  country,  actual  age  being  kept 
constant,  it  would  seem  that  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  relationship 
between  the  length  of  time  in  this  country  or  the  age  at  coming  to 
this  country  and  the  degree  of  recidivism,  with  a  tendency  for  those 
who  have  been  here  longer  or  who  came  here  younger  to  have  more 
convictions. 

Several  explanations  for  this  relationship  might  be  sought.  In  the 
first  place  there  is  the  very  obvious  possibility  of  inadequacy  of  in- 
formation concerning  convictions  in  other  countries  since  these  can  not 
be  verified  as  can  those  of  this  country.  In  the  second  place  there  is 
the  probability  that  the  same  act  might  not  constitute  an  offense  against 
the  law  in  another  country.  This  is  particularly  true  of  the  offense  of 
prostitution  which  will  not  lead  to  arrest  in  most  of  the  European 
countries  if  carried  on  under  more  or  less  exactly  defined  conditions. 
Of  course,  as  has  already  been  stated,  a  woman  known  to  be  a  prosti- 
tute will  not  be  admitted  to  this  country,  but  there  is  no  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  this  law  would  ever  be  enforced  with  complete  success. 

Another  way  of  stating  the  facts  might  be,  that  the  longer  the  immi- 
grant stays  in  this  country,  the  more  likely  she  becomes  to  be  con- 
victed of  offenses  against  the  law  and  the  nearer  the  percentage  of  de- 
linquents among  the  foreign  born  approaches  the  much  higher  per- 

"  The  data  required  for  this  computation  are  the  following: 

r  (number  convictions  with  age  coming  U.  S.)  =  — .173   (170  cases) 
r   (number  convictions  with  age)  =      .197  (169  cases) 

r    (age  at  coming   to   this   country   with   age)    =      ,610  (170  cases) 


NATIVITY  IN  RELATION  TO  DELINQUENCY         195 

centage  of  delinquents  among"  the  native  born.  It  is  true  that  the  most 
of  the  foreign  born  dehnquent  women  in  this  study  have  never  lived 
outside  of  New  York  City  and  that  the  efifect  of  the  crowded  urban 
conditions  under  which  they  are  forced  to  live  may  serve  to  increase 
the  number  of  their  convictions  the  longer  they  live  here. 

Whatever  the  explanation  of  the  relation  may  be,  however,  the 
fact  of  existence  of  correlations  of  this  size  between  recidivism  and 
time  in  this  country  would  be  sufficient  to  interfere  with  our  stressing 
greatly  the  lesser  degree  of  recidivism  of  the  foreign  group.  The  fact 
that  they  have  not  spent  their  whole  lives  in  this  country  tends  to 
counteract  the  allowance  to  be  made  for  their  higher  mean  age.  Ac- 
cordingly we  are  left  uncertain  as  to  whether  there  is  any  valid  differ- 
ence between  the  native  born  delinquents  and  the  foreign  born  with 
respect  to  "criminalistic  tendency"  as  indicated  by  number  of  con- 
victions. The  fact  that  there  is  a  smaller  percentage  of  the  total  for- 
eign born  population  than  of  the  native  born  who  become  delinquents 
at  all,  as  indicated  by  our  group,  would  not  be  affected  by  the  above 
relationship  between  time  in  this  country  and  number  of  convictions. 
Accordingly  it  seems  possible  to  say  that,  while  there  are  fewer,  rela- 
tively, of  the  foreign  born  women  than  of  the  native  born  who  become 
delinquents,  the  fact  of  a  significantly  lower  degree  of  recidivism 
on  the  part  of  the  foreign  born  delinquents  can  not  be  established  by 
our  data. 

It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  in  the  group  of  foreign  born  women 
studied,  very  few  cases  were  found  where  the  "crimes  or  misde- 
meanors were  committed  in  entire  ignorance  of  the  law  because  of 
adherence  to  national  customs  which,  innocent  in  a  rural  district,  are 
dangerous  in  the  city  and  have  therefore  been  prohibited."^*  This 
may  be  because  we  have  not  included  in  our  study  the  cases  where 
fines  were  imposed,  or  the  suspended  sentences  in  the  city  magistrates' 
day  courts  for  violation  of  city  ordinances,  etc. 

A  further  opinion  often  voiced  is  that  much  of  the  crime  among  the 
foreign  born  is  due  to  the  different  ethical  standards  in  other  countries 
which  make  it  difficult  for  an  immigrant  with  ideals  unlike  ours  to 
adjust  himself  to  our  legal  ways  of  thinking.  In  the  group  of  172 
foreign  born  delinquents  whose  cases  we  studied  there  were  very  few 
where  the  ethical  standards  brought  from  another  country  seemed  to 

"Abbott,  Grace.  "Immigration  and  Crime"  (Report  of  Committee  "G"_  of 
the  Institute).  Journal  of  the  American  Institute  of  Criminal  Law  and  Crimi- 
nology.   Vol.  VI,  No.  4.     Nov.,  1915,  p.  529. 


196     STUDY  OF  WOAIICN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

have  any  effect  in  the  commission  of  the  crimes  for  which  the  women 
were  convicted  at  the  time  of  our  study.  There  are  a  few  striking 
exceptions  to  this,  i)articularly  in  the  Auburn  group,  and  therefore  in 
connection  with  the  most  serious  offenses.^'' 

FIRST  CONTACTS  WITH  THE  LAW 

The  problem  of  the  first  contacts  of  the  foreign  born  with  the  law 
is  to  many  people  of  as  much  or  more  importance  than  the  subsequent 
convictions.  Some  of  the  main  factors  of  this  first  contact,  the  age 
at  first  conviction,  nature  and  seriousness  of  first  offense  and  first 
sentence  will  now  be  considered. 

(a)   Age  at  First  Conviction 

Table  57  shows  that  the  range  of  age  at  first  conviction  is  much 
longer  among  the  foreign  than  among  either  of  the  native  born  groups. 
The  percentage  convicted  under  sixteen  years  of  age  is  only  2.4  among 
the  foreign  born  group,  while  it  is  6.3  in  the  native  white  and  4.2  in  the 
native  colored.  This  smaller  percentage  of  foreign  born  juvenile  de- 
linquents is  undoubtedly  affected  by  the  fact  that  64.7  per  cent  of  the 
women  did  not  come  to  this  country  until  after  they  were  over  the 
juvenile  court  age,  and  the  possibility  of  convictions  at  early  ages  in 
many  foreign  countries  is  not  so  great  as  in  the  United  States,  where 
the  Juvenile  Court  has  been  more  fully  developed.  The  age  at  first 
conviction  among  the  native  groups  will  be  more  valuable  if  we 
compare  the  mean  ages  at  first  conviction.  Table  58  indicates  that 
there  is  very  little  difference  between  the  means  of  the  native  white 
and  native  colored,  24.5  as  against  24.4,  a  difference  which  does  not 
appear  demonstrably  valid  statistically.     A  comparison  of  the  stand- 

^^A  notable  exception  to  this  is  the  case  of  a  Syrian  girl,  twenty- four  years 

of   age,   who   was   seduced  by   her   lover,   M ,   under  promise   of    marriage. 

When  she  became  pregnant  he  refused  to  marry  her.  The  subject's  brother-in- 
law,  R ,  with  whom  she  was  living,  offered  to  give  M the  furniture  of 

his  own  flat  and  help  him  financially  in  other  ways  if  he  would  marry  the  girl, 
but  he  refused  to  do  so.     She  became  unable  to  stand  the  taunts  and  insults 

that  M subjected  her  to  and  so  one  morning  after  she  had  met  him  to  make 

a  last  appeal  and  he  had  refused  her,  she  followed  him  into  a  restaurant  and, 
according  to   her  own   statement,   shot   him.     The   story   is   complicated   by   the 

fact   that   the   brother-in-law,    R ,    was    supposed    to   have    shot    M ,   was 

convicted  of  murder  in  the  first  degree  and  sentenced  to  the  chair,  while  the 
girl  was  given  a  short  term  in  Auburn.  On  account  of  her  insistence,  how- 
ever, that  she  had  committed  the  act,  because  M had   "taken  her  honor," 

R 's   sentence  was   commuted  to   life   imprisonment.     Though   the  girl   had 

lived  in  this  country  for  eight  years  she  followed  the  standard  of  the  small 
Syrian  community  in  which  she  had  grown  up,  that  if  a  man  "takes  a  girl's 
honor"  and  refuses  to  "make  it  good"  she  may  take  his  life. 


NATIVITY  IN  RELATION  TO  DELINQUENCY         197 


TABLE  57 

AGE  AT  FIRST  CONVICTION 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  Classified  By  Nativity 

and  Color 

Total  Group 


Nativity  and  Color 

Age  at  First  Conviction 

Total 

Foreign 

Born 

Total 
Native 
Born 

Native 
White 

Native 
Colored 

Total 

8  to  12  years 

12    "    16       "     

.6 
1.8 
8.9 

16.6 

16.0 

14.2 

14.8 

8.3 

5.9 

3.0 

2.4 

2.4 

2.4 

1.8 

.6 

.6 

.8 

5.0 

27.0 

22.8 

17.5 

9.2 

5.5 

3.9 

4.7 

1.6 

1.3 

.5 

.3 

1.1 

5.2 

28.0 

22.0 

16.4 

10.1 

3.9 

3.5 

5.2 

1.8 

1.8 

.7 

.4 

'4/2 

24.0 

25.0 

20.8 

6.3 

10.4 

5.2 

3.1 

1.0 

.7 
4  0 

16    "    20       "     

21  4 

20    "    24       "     

20  9 

24    "    28       "     

17  1 

28    "    32       "     

10  7 

32    "    36       "     

8  4 

36    "    40       "     

5  3 

40    "    44       "     

5  1 

44    "    48       "     

2  0 

48    "    52       "     

1  6 

52    "    56       "     

1  1 

56    "    60       " 

9 

60    "    64       "     

.5 

2 

64    "    68       "     

68    "    72       "     

2 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

169 

382 

286 

96 

551 

TABLE  68 

NATIVE  WHITE  AND  NATIVE  COLORED 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Age  at  First 
Conviction  For  Native  White  and  Native  Colored 


Native 
White 

Native 
Colored 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

24.51 
+  .523 

24.44 

±.727 

.08 

.08 

2 

(7 

da 

8.84 
+  .370 

7.12 
+  .514 

1.72 

2.72 

303 

Cases 

286 

96 

198     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

arc!  deviations,  however,  indicates  that  there  is  probably  a  vaHd  differ- 
ence in  the  dispersion  of  these  two  groups,  with  the  native  white  having 
a  wider  scattering. 

Since  there  seems  to  be  no  vaHd  difference  in  the  central  tendencies 
of  the  age  at  first  conviction  between  the  native  white  and  native 
colored,  we  are  justified  in  comparing  the  total  native  born  and  the 
total  foreign  born,  instead  of  comparing  the  native  white  and  native 
colored  separately  with  the  foreign  born. 

Table  59  shows  that  there  is  a  valid  difference  in  the  mean  age 
at  first  conviction  between  the  total  native  and  total  foreign  born, 
with  a  tendency  for  the  foreign  born  to  be  convicted  at  a  considerably 
later  age.  A  comparison  of  the  standard  deviations  shows  that  there 
is  also  a  real  difference  between  the  dispersion  of  the  two  groups  with 
a  wider  scattering  of  cases  in  the  total  foreign  born  group. 

TABLE  59 

TOTAL  NATIVE  BORN  AND  TOTAL  FOREIGN  BORN 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Age  at  First 
Conviction  For  Total  Native  Bom  and  Total  Foreign  Born 


Total 
Native  Born 

Total 
Foreign   Born 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  0 

in: 

Mean 

24.50 
+  .432 

31.18 

±.874 

-6.68 

6.85 

8 

(Tm 

a 

<J<T 

8.44 
+  .305 

11.37 

+  .618 

-2.93 

4.24 

89,286 

Cases 

382 

169 

{h)  Nature  of  First  Offense 

The  nature  of  the  first  offense  will  be  considered  as  the  offenses 
for  the  institutional  groups  were,  in  Chapter  VI,  first  by  the  New  York 
City  Police  Department  classification,  and  second,  by  felonies  and  mis- 
demeanors. We  must  bear  in  mind  here  that  a  considerable  number  of 
our  group  of  delinquent  women  are  first  offenders  and  therefore  that 
in  those  cases  the  first  offense  applies  to  the  present  offense. 

Table  60  shows,  as  all  the  other  classifications  have,  that  within 
each  group  the  highest  percentage  of  first  offenses  are  offenses  against 
chastity.    The  foreign  born,  however,  show  a  much  smaller  percentage 


NATIVITY  IN  RELATION  TO  DELINQUENCY         199 

TABLE  60 

NATURE  OF  FIRST  OFFENSE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Nativity  and  Color 

Groups,  Classified  by  New  York  City  Police  Department 

Classification 


Nativity  and  Color 

Nature  of  Offense 

Total 

Foreign 

Born 

Total 
Native 
Born 

Native 
White 

Native 
Colored 

Total 

Offenses  against  the  Person 

Offenses  against  Chastity 

Offenses  against  Family  and  Chil- 
dren   

7.0 
33.3 

2.3 

10.5 

1.8 
31.0 
14.0 

2.4 
49.2 

1.6 

7.3 

.3 
13.4 
25.9 

1.8 
50.4 

2.1 

8.8 

.4 
12.7 
23.9 

4.1 
45.9 

3.1 

15.3 
31.6 

3.8 
44.3 

1.8 

Offenses  against  Regulations  for 
Public  Health,  Safety  and  Pol- 
icy   

8.3 

Offenses  against  Administration 
of  Government 

.7 

Offenses  against  Property  Rights. 
General  Criminality 

18.8 
22.2 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

171 

382 

284 

98 

553 

of  offenses  against  chastity  than  do  either  tlie  native  white  or  native 
colored.  The  second  highest  percentage  of  offenses  falls  in  the  offenses 
against  property  rights  for  the  foreign  born  group  and  in  the  general 
criminality  group  for  the  native  white  and  native  colored.  The  other 
divisions  of  offenses  show  no  particularly  striking  differences,  except  in 
offenses  against  the  person  where  the  foreign  born  have  a  slightly 
higher  percentage  of  cases.  The  important  thing  shown  in  the  table  is 
that  the  foreign  born  tend  to  commit  for  their  first  offenses  a  much 
smaller  percentage  of  offenses  against  chastity  than  do.  the  other  na- 
tivity groups,  and  that  they  have  nearly  as  large  a  percentage  of  their 
first  offenders  committing  offenses  against  property  rights,  while  the 
native  white  and  native  colored  have  their  second  largest  percentage 
of  offenders  in  the  general  criminality  group.     This  may  partly  be 


200     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

explained  by  the  fact  of  the  later  age  at  first  conviction  among  the 
foreign  born.  The  general  criminality  offenses  are  very  largely  com- 
I)osecl  of  semi-juvenile  offenses  such  as  ungovernable  or  incorrigible 
child,  which  apply  only  to  those  convicted  at  an  early  age.  Since  the 
difference  in  the  age  at  first  conviction  between  the  total  native  and 
total  foreign  born  seems  to  be  valid,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
the  later  age  at  first  conviction  of  the  foreign  born  is  one  reason  for  the 
few  general  criminality  offenses  within  that  group. 

TABLE  61 

NATURE  OF  FIRST  OFFENSE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Nativity  and  Color 

Groups  Classified  as  Felons  and  Misdemeanants  for  the 

First  Offense 


Nativity  and  Color 

Nature  of  Offense 

Total 

Foreign 

Born 

Total 
Native 
Born 

Native 
White 

Native 
Colored 

Total 

Felons 

28.1 
71.9 

10.0 
90.1 

9.5 
90.5 

11.2 

88.8 

15.6 

Misdemeanants 

84.5 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

171 

382 

284 

98 

553 

A  further  classification  of  the  first  offenses  of  the  native  and  for- 
eign born  shows  that  the  total  foreign  born  have  almost  three  times 
as  high  a  percentage  of  felons  as  the  native  white  and  about  two  and 
a  half  times  as  many  as  the  native  colored.  We  should  have  expected 
this  from  the  high  percentage  of  offenders  against  property  rights  in 
Table  60,  since  this  group  of  offenders  has  54.9  per  cent  of  its  total, 
felons. ^"^ 

Again,  this  is  contrary  to  the  report  of  the  Census  on  Prisoners  and 
Juvenile  Delinquents  in  Institutions,  that  the  foreign  born  "are  slightly 
more  prone  than  the  native  white  to  commit  minor  offenses. "^^ 

"  See  Chapter  VI. 

"  Op.  cit.,  pp.  18-19,  40-41. 


NATIVITY  IN  RELATION  TO  DELINQUENCY         201 

(c)   First  Sentence 

Since  the  first  offenses  of  the  foreign  born  are  in  general  more 
serious  than  the  first  offenses  of  the  native  white  or  colored,  we  might 
expect  that  the  first  sentence  would  be  more  severe.  This  we  find  to 
be  the  case. 

TABLE  62 

FIRST  SENTENCE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  Classified  by  Nativity  and 

Color 


Nativity  and  Color 

First  Sentence 

Total 

Foreign 

Born 

Total 
Native 
Born 

Native 
White 

Native 
Colored 

Total 

Probation  or  Suspended  Sentence . 
Fine 

19.2 
1.2 
1.7 

20.3 

42.4 
15.1 

29.6 

4.2 

1.8 

25.5 

33.5 
5.5 

34.8 
4.5 

2.1 
30.7 

21.6 
6.3 

14.3 
3.1 
1.0 

11.2 

67.3 
3.1 

26.4 
3.2 

Juvenile  Institution 

1.8 

Reformatory  Institution 

23.9 

Penitentiary,    Workhouse  or 
County  Jail 

36.3 

State  Prison 

8.4 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

172 

385 

287 

98 

557 

In  a  comparison  between  the  groups  it  is  obvious  first  of  all  that 
the  foreign  born  have  a  much  larger  percentage  of  women  whose  first 
sentence  was  state  prison  than  have  either  of  the  other  groups.  The 
total  number  of  those  committed  to  institutions  for  the  first  sentence  is 
79.5  per  cent  among  the  foreign  born,  while  among  the  native  white  this 
number  is  60.7  per  cent,  and  among  the  native  colored  82.6  per  cent. 
The  high  percentage  of  colored  committed  to  the  Penitentiary,  Work- 
house group  is,  as  has  been  explained  previously,  probably  due  to  the 
fact  that  so  few  colored  women  are  put  on  probation  and  instead  are 
given  a  short  Workhouse  term.    It  seems  obvious  that  the  native  white 


202     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

are  more  likely  to  be  given  a  chance  on  probation  or  suspended  sen- 
tence than  the  foreign  born.  Though  71.9  per  cent  of  the  foreign  born 
were  first  convicted  of  misdemeanors,  most  of  which  might  have  been 
given  a  probation  sentence,  only  19.2  per  cent  were  given  such  a 
sentence. 

SUMMARY 

In  summarizing  the  relationship  between  nativity  and  delinquency, 
there  are  several  points  which  stand  out  clearly.  The  first  of  these  is 
that  the  foreign  white  group  of  delinquents  studied  from  New  York 
City  is  in  much  smaller  proportion  to  the  total  group  of  delinquents 
than  are  the  foreign  white  females  over  fifteen  in  New  York  City  to 
the  general  female  population  over  fifteen.  That  is,  one  might  con- 
clude, the  foreign  white  in  New  York  City  are  less  likely  to  come  into 
conflict  with  the  law  than  either  the  native  white  or  native  colored. 

Secondly,  a  consideration  of  present  age  shows  that  the  foreign  born 
are  markedly  older  than  the  native  white  or  native  colored. 

The  nature  of  the  present  ofifense  is  more  serious  among  the 
foreign  born  than  among  the  native  white  or  native  colored,  since  the 
one  has  ZZ.?  per  cent  of  its  offenders  felons,  while  the  other  two  have 
13.9  per  cent  and  19.4  per  cent  felons,  ■  respectively.  Though  the 
foreign  born  have  their  highest  percentage  in  the  offenses  against  chas- 
tity group,  as  have  the  native  white  and  native  colored,  this  percentage 
among  the  foreign  born  is  considerably  less  than  within  the  other 
groups.  On  the  other  hand,  the  offenders  against  property  rights  have 
their  largest  proportion  in  the  foreign  born  group,  though  in  each 
nativity  group  this  class  of  delinquents  has  second  place. 

A  comparison  of  the  extent  of  delinquency  among  the  three 
nativity  groups  shows  that  there  is  a  tendency  for  the  native  colored 
to  have  more  convictions  than  the  native  white,  but  that  there  is  no 
demonstrable  difference  between  the  mean  number  of  convictions  for 
the  native  white  and  total  foreign  born  groups.  Due  to  the  weight 
of  the  native  colored  in  the  total  native  born  group,  there  is  a  possible 
slight  tendency  for  the  total  native  born  to  have  a  larger  mean  number 
of  convictions  than  the  total  foreign  born.  When  allowance  is  made 
for  both  present  age  and  time  in  this  country  it  seems  clear  that  we 
can  not  consider  that  any  significant  difference  in  recidivism  between 
these  groups  is  established. 

If  we  turn  to  the  comparison  of  felons  and  misdemeanants  within 
the  nativity  groups,  we  find  that  there  seems  to  be  a  valid  difference 


NATIVITY  IN  RELATION  TO  DELINQUENCY         203 

in  the  tendency  for  the  total  native  born  felons  to  have  a  larger  mean 
number  of  convictions  than  the  total  foreign  born  felons.  There 
seems  to  be  no  demonstrable  difference  in  a  like  comparison  between 
the  misdemeanants  in  these  two  nativity  groups. 

Passing  from  the  number  of  convictions  to  the  more  general  view 
of  the  percentage  of  recidivists  and  first  offenders,  we  find  that  only 
47.7  per  cent  of  the  total  foreign  born  are  recidivists,  while  55.1  per 
cent  of  the  native  white  and  69.4  per  cent  of  the  native  colored  have 
had  previous  convictions.  That  is,  in  addition  to  being  less  likely  to 
come  into  conflict  with  the  law  at  all,  there  seems  to  be  a  slight  ten- 
dency for  the  foreign  born  who  get  into  the  courts  not  to  repeat 
their  offenses,  though  lack  of  information  concerning  the  early  crimi- 
nal record  of  the  foreign  group  may  operate  in  this  connection  also. 

The  partial  correlation  coefficient  for  the  number  of  previous  con- 
victions with  the  age  at  coming  to  the  United  States,  for  constant 
present  age  shows  that  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  relationship  be- 
tween the  age  at  coming  to  this  country  and  the  degree  of  recidivism, 
with  a  tendency  for  those  who  came  here  when  younger  to  have  more 
convictions.  This  must,  of  course,  be  given  weight  in  any  compari- 
son of  number  of  convictions  among  the  native  and  foreign  born, 
which  shows  that  the  foreign  born  have  a  smaller  average  number  of 
convictions  than  the  native  born. 

It  is  also  of  interest  to  note  again  that  the  foreign  bom  show  a 
valid  difference  in  their  tendency  to  be  first  convicted  at  a  mean  later 
age  than  the  total  native  born  group,  and  that  there  seems  to  be  no 
demonstrable  difference  between  the  mean  age  at  first  conviction  of  the 
native  white  and  native  colored.  While  the  foreign  born  are  first 
convicted  at  a  later  age,  they  are  also  first  convicted  of  more  serious 
offenses  than  the  native  white  or  native  colored.  The  sentences  fol- 
lowing these  more  serious  first  offenses  are,  as  we  should  expect,  more 
severe  than  in  the  groups  of  native  white  and  native  colored  women 
where  the  percentage  of  misdemeanants  is  much  higher.  It  seems 
true,  however,  even  making  allowance  for  the  difference  in  serious- 
ness of  offense,  that  the  native  white  are  more  likely  to  be  given  a 
chance  on  probation  or  suspended  sentence  than  the  foreign  born. 
The  figures  would  also  indicate  what  is  considered  a  well  established 
fact  in  New  York  City,  that  the  negroes  are  seldom  considered  for 
probation  or  suspended  sentence  because  of  the  meager  facilities  in 
the  probation  system  for  supervising  negro  women. 

The  interest  in  the  nativity  and  color  groups  in  any  such  study  as 


204      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

this  is  not,  of  course,  confined  solely  to  the  consideration  of  the  crimi- 
nal record.  The  other  factors  of  the  educational  background,  eco- 
nomic efficiency,  and  history  of  sex  irregularities  of  the  foreign  and 
native  born  will  be  considered  in  later  chapters  dealing  especially  with 
these  subjects. 


CHAPTER  IX 

SIGNIFICANT   FACTORS   IN   EARLY   HOME   CONDITIONS 
AND   FAMILY   STATUS 

IN  attempting  to  understand  any  delinquent,  and  the  possible  factors 
which  have  been  associated  with  her  delinquency,  one  of  the  first 
queries  is  about  the  kind  of  home  in  which  she  has  grown  up,  whether 
she  has  seen  there  such  offenses  as  that  which  she  has  committed,  or 
whether  the  lack  of  training  in  the  home  has  permitted  petty  offenses 
to  pass  unnoticed  which  have  finally  culminated  into  contact  with  the 
law.  Closely  associated  with  the  more  external  survey  of  the  home 
conditions  is  the  consideration  of  the  woman's  heredity,  including  the 
defective  physical  and  mental  strains  and  other  defects,  such  as  ex- 
cessive alcoholism  and  criminai^ecords  of  the  parents.  Other  factors 
which  determine  to  a  certain  extent  the  relative  advantages  or  disad- 
vantages of  the  early  home  surroundings  are  the  number  of  children 
in  the  family,  particularly  in  the  poor  family;  the  subject's  order  in 
her  fraternity,  that  is,  whether  she  was  oldest  or  youngest  in  a  large 
family;  the  parents'  ages  in  relation  to  the  ages  of  the  women  in  whom 
we  are  interested;  the  parents'  nativity;  and  the  ages  of  the  women  at 
the  time  of  either  parent's  death.  These  elements,  of  course,  enter  into 
the  estimate  of  the  home  conditions,  but  are  presented  separately  for 
comparison  with  similar  data  on  delinquent  groups.  Since  there  are 
no  figures  comparable  to  ours  on  the  home  conditions  of  the  general 
population,  this  most  important  comparison  will  have  to  be  omitted 
for  the  most  part. 

METHOD    OF    ESTIMATING    HOME    CONDITIONS    DURING    CHILDHOOD    AND 

ADOLESCENCE 

In  considering  home  conditions  during  childhood  and  adolescence, 
the  factor  of  age  again  arises  to  make  the  situation  difficult.  In  many 
of  the  younger  cases,  the  home  visited  by  the  field  worker  was  the 
home  in  which  the  woman  had  lived  for  years,  and  was  with  little 
change  the  home  during  childhood  and   adolescence.     In  these  cases 

205 


•^ 


206     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

we  have  first-hand  and  reliable  information  concerning  the  home. 
When  a  woman  is  forty  or  fifty  years  old,  however,  it  becomes  much 
more  difficult  even  to  estimate  what  the  earlier  home  conditions  were. 
It  has  been  necessary,  therefore,  in  the  cases  of  these  older  women, 
to  obtain  every  possible  record  of  social  and  charitable  organizations, 
and  to  learn  all  that  we  could  from  older  friends  and  relatives  in 
order  to  have  sufficient  material  on  which  to  base  an  estimate.  In  many 
cases,  however,  we  have  had  only  the  woman's  statement  to  go  by. 
We  have  thrown  out  of  each  group  all  of  the  subject's  statements 
which  we  felt  were  too  unreliable  for  use.  In  this  respect,  the  Work- 
house is,  again,  least  satisfactory.  The  real  data  of  interest  concern- 
ing early  background  can  not  be  obtained  from  a  person  unless  there 
is  a  spirit  of  cooperation  and  friendliness.  As  previously  stated,  the 
heterogeneity  of  the  group  at  the  Workhouse,  the  hurry  and  con- 
fusion, made  a  satisfactory  interview  impossible  in  many  cases,  and 
the  more  personal  details  such  as  information  regarding  family  and 
the  status  of  the  home  suffered  most  as  a  result  of  this.  The  reasons  for 
making  this  difficult  are  two.  In  the  first  place,  many  of  the  women 
felt  that  it  was  unnecessary  for  them  to  be  accurate  in  giving  informa- 
tion which  they  thought  would  be  difficult  to  verify;  also,  many  of 
the  older  women  were  too  confused  and  their  memories  were  too  poor 
to  give  anything  more  than  the  most  inaccurate  and  obviously  incor- 
rect statements.  We  have,  therefore,  omitted  the  estimate  of  home 
conditions  for  the  Workhouse  group,  throughout,  except  in  Table  67 
which  shows  how  much  of  this  information  was  based  on  the  sub- 
ject's statement  only  and  how  marked  the  tendency  is  for  the  Work- 
house women  to  place  themselves  in  the  higher  estimates  of  the  home 
conditions.  We  are  convinced  from  our  contact  with  the  group  of 
W'Omen  in  the  AVorkhouse  and  from  the  material  we  have  been  able 
to  verify,  that  such  a  percentage  as  94.1  per  cent  in  the  three  higher 
classes  of  home  conditions  is  absurd,  and  that  this  high  percentage  is 
largely  due  to  the  tendency  noted  in  other  groups  of  facts  about 
the  Workhouse  women — the  tendency  to  make  out  their  past  as  much 
better  than  it  really  was. 

The  material  on  home  conditions,  after  the  field  worker's  visits 
and  interviews  had  been  recorded  and  summarized,  was  carefully 
gone  over  by  two  persons,  and  with  some  of  the  institutional  groups,  a 
third  person,  each  one  making  an  estimate  of  the  three  factors  con- 
sidered under  home  conditions,  and  a  total  estimate  of  home  condi- 
tions.    The  work  was  done  by  these  persons   independently  of  one 


FACTORS  IN  EARLY  HOME  CONDITIONS  207 

another  and  finally  re-checked  by  one  person  who  treated  in  a  uniform 
manner  all  of  the  cases  in  which  a  difference  had  been  noted.  We 
shall  first  take  up  the  factors  considered  in  making  up  the  total  estimate 
of  the  home  during  childhood  and  adolescence,  namely,  (1)  the  eco-' 
nomic  status,  (2)  the  moral  standards,  (3)  parental  supervision. 
Throughout,  if  a  child  spent  the  most  of  her  time  until  adolescence  in  a 
Home  or  Orphanage,  the  weight  was  given  in  making  the  estimate  to 
the  conditions  in  the  Orphanage.  If  she  spent  the  most  of  her  life  in 
her  own  home  with  a  few  years  only  in  the  Orphanage,  the  estimate 
was  based  on  conditions  in  her  own  home. 

(a)  Estimate  of  Economic  Statju  in  the  Home 

The  estimate  of  the  economic  status  in  the  home  is  divided  into 
five  classes,  which  do  not  attempt  to  include  all  classes  of  society,  but 
those  from  a  very  low  economic  status  through  those  of  considerable 
independent  means.  In  general,  the  two  lowest  classes  include  those 
who  are,  for  the  most  part,  behind  their  income  and  unable  to  get 
along  on  what  they  earn.  The  third  class  which  we  have  called  medi- 
ocre or  fair  is  made  up  of  the  poor,  but  the  normally  self-sustaining, 
while  the  two  upper  classes  are  those  who  are  ahead  of  their  income, 
and  comfortably  situated.  In  making  this  estimate,  the  following 
points  were  noted,  not  as  arbitrary  standards  for  determining  the 
classification,  but  merely  as  suggestions : 

1.  Very  poor.  Includes  families  which  are  dependents  all  or  a 
large  part  of  the  time  and  willing  to  accept  aid  repeatedly.  May 
also  include  families  which  have  accepted  less  financial  aid,  but 
have  not  had  enough  money  to  eke  out  a  decent  existence  and 
have  lived  in  primitive  fashion. 

2.  Poor.  Includes  families  able  to  get  along  with  difficulty,  but  re- 
quiring only  occasional  financial  aid;  those  with  incomes  obviously 
below  a  living  wage,  though  some  may  have  unusual  ability  in 
the  management  of  the  income. 

3.  Mediocre  or  Fair.  Includes  those  who  are  normally  self-sup- 
porting but  without  saving  or  surplus.     An  occasional   free  treat- 

-  ment  in  hospitals  need  not  place  a  family  in  class  2,  while  an 
industrial  insurance  policy,  for  example,  need  not  raise  it  to 
class  4. 

4.  Good.  Includes  those  able  to  live  comfortably  on  their  incomes, — 
those  who   have  money  saved  in  the  bank,   or  insurance.     Those 


208     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

who    have    property    heavily    mortgaged    so    that    keeping    up    the 
interest    is    a   great    financial    drain    might    lower    the    estimate   to 
class  3  or  2,  as  the  case  might  be. 
5.     Very    good.      Includes    families    of    considerable    means,    so    that 
luxuries   are   possible,   such   as   extensive   traveling,   etc. 

The  distribution  of  these  delinquent  women  by  the  estimate  of  the 
economic  status  is  shown  in  Table  63.  From  this  table  it  is  clear 
that  the  same  trend  runs  through  each  group,  i.e.,  a  small  percent- 
age both  in  the  very  poor  and  the  very  good  classes,  and  a  concen- 
tration in  the  mediocre  and  poor  classes.  The  largest  percentage  in 
each  group,  except  Bedford,  falls  in  the  fair  or  mediocre  class  with 
the  second  largest  percentage  in  the  poor  class.  Bedford  has  the 
largest  per  cent  of  any  of  the  groups  in  class  1,  and  the  largest  per- 
centage of  her  total  in  class  2.  This  institution  undoubtedly  is  af- 
fected by  the  element  of  having  so  many  cases  sent  from  the  country 
districts.  Out  of  the  nine  cases,  for  instance,  classed  as  very  poor  in 
the  economic  status,  seven  cases  or  77.7  per  cent,  were  committed  from 
country  districts,  while  only  11.9  per  cent  of  the  total  group  were 
committed  from  courts  outside  of  New  York  City.  It  is  of  interest 
to  note  that  Bedford,  in  addition  to  having  the  largest  percentage  of 
women  in  the  poorest  classes,  also  has  the  only  two  cases  where  the 
early  economic  conditions  were  considered  very  good.  In  one  of  these 
cases,  the  girl  was  an  only  child.  Her  father,  a  wealthy  man,  was  a 
member  of  a  large  publishing  firm,  a  member  of  the  Chamber  of' 
Commerce  and  a  prominent  man  in  the  community.  They  lived  in  the 
most  fashionable  residence  section  in  Brooklyn.  The  girl  was  given 
every  opportunity,  was  sent  to  a  private  school,  given  music  lessons, 
etc.  The  other  case  is  that  of  a  girl  whose  father  was  a  foreign  cor- 
respondent for  a  large  newspaper,  a  mining  expert,  and  a  well-known 
politician.  She  and  her  sister  traveled  all  over  the  world  with  the 
father,  had  private  tutors  for  years,  and  finally  went  to  an  expensive 
finishing  school.  In  both  of  these  cases  the  economic  standards  were 
very  good.  The  Magdalen  has  the  largest  percentage  in  the  twO'  best 
classes,  while  the  Penitentiary  comes  second.  The  Penitentiary,  on 
the  other  hand,  has  the  smallest  percentage  in  the  two  poorest  classes, 
with  the  Probation  group  having  the  next  smallest  percentage  in  these 
two  classes.  For  the  total  group,  the  table  shows  that  41.4  per  cent  of 
the  cases  come  from  homes  where  the  economic  status  during  child- 
hood and  adolescence  was  poor,  and  where  the  family  was  nearly  aN 
ways  behind  its  income.     Forty-five  per  cent  of  the  cases  were  from 


FACTORS  IN  EARLY  HOME  CONDITIONS 


209 


families  perhaps  normally  self-supporting  but  poor,  while  only  13.6 
per  cent  come  from  comfortable  homes.  There  are  no  figures  which 
will  make  a  comparison  of  our  group  with  the  total  population  pos- 
sible, so  that  in  our  discussion  of  the  home  conditions  of  this  group 
we  can  hope  to  give  little  more  than  a  picture  of  the  conditions  as 
we  found  them. 

TABLE  63 

ESTIMATE  OF  ECONOMIC   STATUS  IN  THE  HOME  DURING 
CHILDHOOD  AND  ADOLESCENCE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 

(Workhouse  Omitted) 


Institutional  Groups 

Estimate  of  Economic  Status 

Total 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Probation 

Very  poor 

9.8 

9.0 

5.7 

2.2 

2.3 

5.7 

Poor 

50.1 

38.4 

32.9 

22.7 

34.5 

35.7 

Fair 

31.6 

43.5 

42.9 

57.2 

49.5 

45.0 

Good 

6.5 

9.0 

18.6 

18.4 

13.8 

13.1 

Very  good 

2.2 

.5 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

92 

78 

70 

93 

87 

420 

There  are,  however,  certain  comparisons  from  other  studies  of 
delinquency  which  may  be  of  importance  here.  In  the  consideration 
of  the  economic  status  we  may  note  particularly  the  study  of  children  in 
the  Juvenile  Court  in  Chicago,  made  by  Miss  Breckinridge  and  Miss 
Abbott  in  1912.^  In  discusing  the  "Poor  Child"  they  have  made  four 
large  economic  groups  indicating  the  status  in  the  homes  of  the  chil- 
dren.    Their  classes  are: 

Group  I.     Very  poor  families.     Not  normally  self-sustaining. 
Group  II.     Poor,  but  normally  self-sustaining. 
Group  III.     Fairly  comfortable. 
Group  IV.     Comfortable. 

^  Breckinridge,   Sophonisba   P.,   and   Abbott,    Edith.     "The   Delinquent   Child 
and  the  Home."     Russell  Sage  Foundation,  1912,  p.  72. 


210      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

Roughly,  the  cases  they  have  included  in  Group  I  would  corre- 
spond to  those  we  have  included  in  classes  1  and  2.  Those  in  Group  II 
would  include  our  class  3,  Group  III  would  include  class  4,  and  Group 
IV  would  include  class  5.  If  we  rearrange  our  classes  in  this  way, 
we  find  that  the  rough  percentage  comparison  is  as  follows : 

Children  in  Juvenile     Our  Delinquent  Group 

Court  in  Chicago 

Boys  Girls 

Group    I    38.2  68.8  41.4 

Group  II   37.9  21.0  45.0 

Group  III    21.2         7.6  13.1 

Group  IV   1.7         1.3  .5 

No    Home    1.0         1.3 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  boys  in  the  Juvenile  Court  appear 
to  come  from  better  homes  than  the  girls  and  that  our  group  is  be- 
tween the  two.  Though  no  exact  comparison  is  possible,  we  may  ob- 
serve that  in  each  group  the  preponderance  of  cases  is  in  the  two  lower 
groups  of  the  \ery  poor,  and  the  poor  but  normally  self-.supporting. 
The  study  of  the  children  in  the  Juvenile  Court,  of  course,  gave  the 
worker  an  opportunity  to  visit  the  childhood  home  and  make  an  esti- 
mate on  what  was  actually  observed  at  that  time.  Because  our  esti- 
mate necessarily  had  to  be  based  on  a  matter  of  record  and  second- 
hand information  for  most  of  the  older  women,  it  is  interesting  to 
see  that  the  same  tendency  is  shown,  for  the  delinquents  in  both  groups 
to  come  from  the  poorer  economic  classes. 

(6)   Estimate  of  Moral  Standards  in  the  Home 

A  second  general  factor  which  was  observed  in  a  study  of  the 
home  conditions  was  the  moral  standards  in  the  home  during  child- 
hood and  adolescence.  This  again  has  been  estimated,  and  is  grouped 
into  five  classes,  as  follows : 

1.  Very  poor.  Here  there  were  included  the  most  flagrant  cases  o£ 
low  moral  standards,  such  as  excessive  alcoholism,  sex  offenses, 
criminal  records,  etc.,  in  the  immediate  family  in  which  the  girl 
was  brought  up.  Extreme  overcrowding,  with  consequent  lack 
of  privacy,  an  extremely  bad  neighborhood  and  environment  should 
be  considered  in  connection  with  the  standard  of  the  immediate 
family. 

2,  Poor.  Includes  families  with  low  moral  standards  but  appreciably 
better  than  class  1.  This  class  may  include  cases  where  there  may 
not  be  definite  active  immorality  of  any  kind  in  the  immediate 
family,  but  where  there  is  absence  of  standards  in  parents  or  where 


FACTORS  IN  EARLY  HOME  CONDITIONS  211 

parents  have  so  little  force  that  they  are  not  able  to  establish  decent 
standards.  An  example  of  this  occurs  in  one  of  the  Bedford 
cases  where  the  parents  did  not  themselves  steal,  drink  or  commit 
illegal  acts,  and  yet  they  countenanced  petty  stealing  in  the  girl, 
and  were  willing  to  accept  the  small  things  she  had  stolen  and 
brought  home. 

3.  Fair  or  mediocre.  Includes  cases  where,  for  the  most  part,  the 
members  of  the  immediate  family  have  a  reputable  standing  in 
the  community.  A  criminal  record  for  one  member  of  the  family, 
if  it  does  not  directly  affect  the  girl,  or  moderate  alcoholism  need 
not  necessarily  lower  a  case  to  class  2. 

4.  Good.  Includes  cases  where  all  of  family  have  good  standards,  and 
where  there  is  every  chance  that  the  girl  should  have  good  moral 
standards,  in  so  far  as  the  character  of  her  surroundings  has 
affected  her. 

5.  Very  Good.  Includes  cases  where  there  are  unusually  high  stand- 
ards in  the  parents  and  in  the  immediate  environment. 

With  this  classification,  we  see  in  Table  64  that  the  distribution 
of  the  estimate  of  moral  standards  is,  in  general,  very  like  that  of  the 
previous  estimate.  In  each  institutional  group  there  is  a  larger  per- 
centage of  the  cases  in  the  lowest  class  than  in  the  lowest  economic 
class,  but  there  are  only  two  cases,  and  those  in  the  Penitentiary,  in  the 
highest  class.  Bedford  has  the  highest  percentage  in  the  poor  class, 
while  the  other  institutional  groups  have  the  highest  percentage  of 
their  cases  in  the  fair  or  mediocre  grotip.  The  Penitentiary  has  the 
smallest  percentage  below  mediocre,  and  is  followed  in  order  of  in- 
creasing percentages  for  this  group  by  Probation,  Auburn,  Magdalen 
and  Bedford.  The  total  group  shows  a  larger  percentage  in  the  two 
highest  classes  of  moral  standards  than  is  found  in  the  two  highest 
estimates  of  economic  status.  The  factor  of  the  number  of  country 
cases  committed  to  Bedford  for  petty  offenses  undoubtedly  helps, 
again,  to  swell  the  percentage  of  cases  falling  in  the  class  of  very 
low  moral  standards.  Our  observation  has  been  that  more  flagrant 
offenses  against  moral  standards  will  be  tolerated  in  rural  than  in 
urban  communities.  A>ry  likely  several  of  the  Bedford  cases,  which 
will  be  cited  later,  might  have  been  spared  contact  with  the  law  if  they 
had  been  removed  from  the  extremely  immoral  surroundings  when 
they  were  young.  Another  factor  which  may  account  for  Bedford's 
larger  representation  in  these  lower  groups  is  that  we  know  the  women 
in  Bedford  much  more  thoroughly  than  the  women  in  any  other  group, 
and   it   is  true,   we   are   convinced   from   observation,   that   the   more 


212      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


TABLE  64 

ESTIMATE  OF  MORAL  STANDARDS  IN  THE  HOME  DURING 
CHILDHOOD  AND  ADOLESCENCE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 

(Workhouse  Omitted) 


Institutional  G 

ROUPS 

Estimate  of  Moral  Standards 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Probation 

Total 

Very  poor 

14.2 

44.7 

31.6 

9.8 

14.1 
16.6 
46.1 
23.0 

11.4 

20.0 
47.2 
21.5 

7.6 
8.6 

51.8 

30.1 

2.2 

5.8 
21.9 
57.5 
15.0 

10.5 

Poor 

Fair 

Good 

Very  good 

22.6 

46.7 

20.0 

.2 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

92 

78 

70 

93 

87 

420 

thorough  the  investigation,  the  less  advantageous  to  the  subject  is  the 
trend  away  from  the  information  which  she  has  given. 

(c)   Estimate  of  Parental  Supervision  in  the  Homte 

The  third  factor,  and  one  of  the  most  important  in  making  an 
estimate  of  the  home  conditions  is  the  element  of  parental  supervision 
in  the  home.  A  home  may  be  economically  very  comfortable  and  the 
moral  standards  may  be  fair,  yet  the  parents  may  be  so  harsh,  or  so 
lacking  in  force,  understanding  and  sympathetic  insight,  that  their 
effect  on  the  children  is  very  bad.  We  have  not  considered  separately 
in  this  connection  the  markedly  psychopathic  and  mentally  abnormal 
girls  who  may  have  been  brought  up  in  a  home  where  the  parents 
had  a  fairly  intelligent  understanding,  but  were  unable  to  manage  the 
girl  because  she  required  the  supervision  of  some  one  who  had  much 
more  skill  and  experience  in  handling  abnormal  cases.  In  such  a  case, 
the  parental  supervision  would  be  classed  as  fair,  because  our  interest 
in  this  connection  is  in  the  status  of  the  home,  not  in  the  idiosyncrasies 
of  the  individual.     If  the  difficulty  of  adjustment  lies  in  the  individual 


FACTORS  IN  EARLY  HOME  CONDITIONS  213 

herself,  that  will  be  considered  in  another  connection.  For  determining 
this  estimate  which  has  been  very  carefully  made,  we  have  considered 
the  following  suggestions : 

1.  Very  poor.  Includes  cases  where  one  or  both  parents  are  dead, 
and  the  guardian  makes  no  effort  to  look  after  the  child.  Extreme 
cases  where  one  or  both  parents  are  living  but  do  not  attempt 
supervision  of  any  kind  fall  here,  and  also  cases  where  parents  are 
very  unintelligent  in  the  control  of  the  child. 

2.  Poor.      Includes   less    extreme    cases    than    1.      Alay    include    cases  ~ 
where  the  mother  has  to  go  out  to  work  and  no  one  is  left  at  home 
to  look  after  the   girl,   or  where   there   may  be  very  strict   super- 
vision,   but   so    little   understanding   that   the   supervision   does   not 
count  for  anything. 

3.  Fair.  Includes  cases  where  the  supervision  and  intelligent  control 
in  the  home  are  sufficiently  good  that  a  normal  child  stands  a 
fair  chance  of  being  guided  by  it.  As  noted  before,  parents  who 
are  fairly  intelligent  in  their  control  of  a  normal  child  but  who  can 
not  manage  an  abnormal  child  will  be  placed  in  this  group,  since 
we  are  desirous  of  showing  in  this  place  the  kind  of  home  from 
which  the  most  of  our  delinquents  come,  and  not  the  make-up  of 
the   child. 

4.  Good.  Includes  cases  where  children  have  been  carefully  and  in- 
telligently supervised,  and  ought  certainly,  if  normal,  to  have  been 
guided  by  their  supervision. 

5.  P^ery  good.  Includes  cases  where  supervision  has  been  excellent 
and  shows  unusual  insight  into  the  nature  of  the  child. 

Table  65  shows  how  the  women  in  institutional  groups  are  dis- 
tributed by  this  classification.  Except  for  the  Penitentiary,  the  per- 
centage in  the  very  poor  class  is  considerably  larger  than  in  either  the 
estimate  of  economic  status  or  moral  standards.  In  each  institutional 
group  the  percentage  in  the  poor  class  is  also  larger  than  this  same 
class  in  any  of  the  other  estimates  considered.  Again,  there  are  only 
2  cases  in  the  very  good  class,  and  those  from  the  Penitentiary. 
These  2  cases  which  were  also  in  the  highest  class  of  moral  standards 
will  be  considered  later.  As  a  whole,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  in 
the  bulk  of  the  cases  the  estimate  of  parental  supervision  falls  into 
much  lower  classes  than  either  the  moral  or  economic  factors,  and 
that  only  3.1  per  cent  had  good  or  ujiusually  good  supervision  at 
home,  while  only  35.0  per  cent  were  intelligently  enough  controlled 
so  that  they  stood  a  fair  chance  of  developing  normally. 


214       STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

(d)    Total  Estimate  of  the  Home 

If  we  compare  these  three  general  factors  which  have  gone  into 
making  an  estimate  of  the  home  conditions,  we  may  see  that  the  ele- 
ment of  very  poor  or  poor  parental  supervision  has  affected  the  largest 
number  of  cases,  while  very  poor  or  poor  economic  conditions  have 
affected  the  next  largest  number.  In  considering  the  childhood  home, 
as  a  whole,  these  three  elements  vary  in  weight  in  different  cases.  A 
child  well  supervised  and  living  in  a  home  with  good  moral  standards 
may  still  be  too  poor  economically  to  be  thought  of  as  growing  up  in 
a  fair  home,  while  a  home  with  good  moral  standards  and  a  fair 
amount  of  money,  may  be  so  lacking  in  control  of  the  children  as  to 
lose  all  the  effect  of  the  other  two  elements. 

In  making  up  the  total  estimate  of  the  home  conditions  during 
childhood  and  adolescence,  the  three  estimates  just  discussed,  the 
economic  status,  moral  standards  and  parental  supervision,  were  con- 
sidered, and  from  a  careful  survey  of  these  three  factors  and  their 


TABLE  65 

ESTIMATE  OF  PARENTAL  SUPERVISION  IN  THE  HOME 
DURING  CHILDHOOD  AND  ADOLESCENCE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 

(Workhouse  Omitted) 


Institutional  Groups 

Estimate  of 
Parental  Supervision 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Probation 

Total 

Very  poor 

17.4 
56.7 
25.1 

1.1 

24.3 

39.7 

33.3 

2.6 

15.7 

52.9 

28.6 

2.9 

5.4 
36.7 

51.8 
4.3 
2.2 

18.4 

44.9 

34.5 

2.3 

16.0 

Poor 

Fair 

Good 

Very  good 

46.0 

35.0 

2.9 

.2 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

92 

78 

70 

93 

87 

420 

FACTORS  IN  EARLY  HOME  CONDITIONS  215 

relative  weights  in  the  home,  a  classification  of  5  groups  was  made, 
which  we  have  called : 

1.  Very  poor.  Includes  cases  where  all  of  the  elements  entering  into 
the  home  life  are  bad,  and  where  there  is  every  chance  that  the 
child  has  been  subjected  to  surroundings  too  bad  to  make  her  a 
good  citizen  unless  she  is  a  very  unusual  child,  and  later  able  to 
get  away  from  her  early  associations. 

2.  Poor.  Includes  homes  which,  in  general,  are  better  than  those 
in  the  previous  class.  A  home,  fair  in  certain  respects,  may  be 
so  pulled  down  by  one  very  bad  element  that  the  estimate  falls 
here  instead  of   in  class  3. 

3.  Fair.  Includes  homes  which  are,  for  the  most  part,  not  markedly 
bad  or  markedly  good  in  any  one  respect,  though  there  may  be 
cases  here  where  the  moral  standards,  for  instance,  are  excellent, 
while  the  other  factors  are  only  mediocre  and  therefore  keep  the 
estimate   in   class   3. 

4.  Good.  Includes  homes  which  can  offer  good  economic  and  moral 
standards,  and  where  there  is  intelligent  enough  understanding 
of  the  child  to  make  the  other  factors  count  for  what  they  should. 

5.  Very  good.  Homes  of  unusual  standards  and  offering  excellent 
opportunities.  It  is  not  necessary  that  each  of  the  previous  3 
estimates  should  have  been  in  the  highest  group  in  order  to  have 
a  case  fall  here. 

Table  66  shows  the  distribution  of  our  cases  by  this  method  of 
estimation,  and  makes  it  clear,  first  of  all,  that  the  total  estimate  seems 
to  approximate  the  estimate  of  economic  status  more  than  any  other 
factor.  From  this  it  would  seem  that  the  economic  factor  determines 
to  a  very  large  extent  whether  or  not  the  home  seems  a  desirable 
place  to  bring  up  children.  The  table  shows  in  each  institutional  group 
the  concentration  of  cases  in  the  poor  and  mediocre  groups,  with  very 
few  cases  in  the  better  classes.  The  Penitentiary  group  shows  the 
smallest  percentage  falling  in  the  two  poorest  classes  while  the  Mag- 
dalen has  the  next  larger,  and  is  followed  by  Probation,  Auburn  and 
Bedford  in  order  of  increasing  percentages.  Of  the  total  group  of 
women,  8.3  per  cent  came  from  homes  which  were  very  bad  in  every 
way  and  which  were  not  fit  places  for  children  to  live,  38.1  per  cent 
came  from  poor  homes  which  had  at  least  one  and  perhaps  more  bad 
elements,  47.1  per  cent  came  from  fair  or  mediocre  homes,  while  only 
6.5  per  cent  came  from  homes  which  were  good  or  excellent. 

Chart  XIV  shows  graphically  the  figure  given  in  Table  66,  and 
indicates  that  the  two  upper  classes  contribute  the  smallest  percentages 


216      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINOUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


TABLE  66 

ESTIMATE  OF  HOME  CONDITIONS  DURING  CHILDHOOD  AND 

ADOLESCENCE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 

(Workhouse  Omitted) 


Institutional  G 

ROUPS 

Estimate  of  Home  Conditions 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Probation 

Total 

Very  poor 

10.9 

12.8 

10.0 

5.4 

3.4 

8.3 

Poor 

51.1 

42.3 

38.5 

22.6 

36.8 

38.1 

Fair 

31.5 

37.2 

47.1 

63.4 

55.2 

47.1 

Good 

6.5 

7.7 

4.3 

6.4 

4.6 

6.0 

Very  good 

2.1 

.5 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

92 

78 

70 

93 

87 

420 

of  delinquent  women,  while  in  each  chart  the  second  and  third  classes 
show  the  largest  numbers. 

(e)  Comparison  Betzveen  Verified  and  Unverified  Data  on  Home 

Conditions 

It  may  be  advisable  to  give  here  the  figures  which  show  how  the 
estimates  were  made  up  on  the  various  groups,  and  how  the  subject's 
statement  differs  from  the  verified  data.  The  estimates  previously 
presented  are  on  combined  data ;  that  is,  in  addition  to  all  of  the  veri- 
fied statements  which  enabled  us  to  determine  the  kind  of  home,  the 
subject's  statement  also  was  used  where  we  felt  such  information  was 
reliable.  Table  67  shows  that  the  percentage  of  verified  material  on 
home  conditions  varies  in  the  different  institutional  groups.  In  Bedford 
none  of  the  subject's  statements  alone  have  been  use'd  and  in  Auburn 
and  the  Magdalen  the  estimates  were  based  on  verified  data  in  all 
but  15.4  per  cent  and  13.9  per  cent  of  the  cases,  respectively.  The 
Penitentiary  estimate  is  based  on  the  subject's  statement  only  in 
31.1   per  cent  of  the  cases,  while  the  Probation  group  has  36.8  per 


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218     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

TABLE  67 

ESTIMATE  OF  HOME  CONDITIONS  DURING  CHILDHOOD  AND 

ADOLESCENCE 

Per   Cent   Distribution   by   Institutional   Groups    Showing   Subject's 
Statement  Only,  Verified  Data  Only,  and  Combined  Data 


Institutional  Group 

Estimate  of  Home  Conditions 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

Subject's  Statement  Only 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Very  poor  and  poor 

Fair,  good  and  very  good .... 

50.0 
50.0 

30.0 
70.0 

17.2 

82.8 

5.9 

94.1 

25.0 
75.0 

17.2 

82.8 

Number  of  cases 

12 

10 

29 

68 

32 

151 

Verified  Data  Only 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Very  poor  and  poor 

Fair,  good  and  very  good .... 

62.0 

38.0 

56.1 
43.9 

51.7 

48.3 

32.8 
67.2 

44.0 
56.0 

49.1 
50.9 

50.8 
49.2 

Number  of  cases 

92 

66 

60 

64 

25 

55 

362 

Combined  Data 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100,0 

100.0 

Very  poor  and  poor 

Fair,  good  and  very  good .... 

62.0 
38.0 

55.1 
44.9 

48.6 
51.4 

28.0 
72.0 

16.1 
83.9 

40.2 
59.8 

40.9 
59.1 

Number  of  cases 

92 

78 

70 

93 

93 

87 

513 

cent  and  the  Workhouse  73.1  per  cent  of  women  whose  statements  of 
early  home  conditions  could  not  be  verified.  To  show  how  the  per- 
centages of  cases  in  the  two  poorest  classes  and  those  in  the  three  best 
classes  vary  between  the  subject's  statement  and  the  verified  data,  we 
may  note  in  Table  67  that  the  two  lowest  classes  have  only  5.9  per  cent 
in  the  Workhouse  by  the  subject's  statement  alone,  based  on  68  cases, 
while  there  are  44.0  per  cent  in  these  two  classes  if  we  consider  the  25 
cases  in  the  Workhouse  group  whose  early  home  conditions  we  were 
able  to  verify.  By  combining  the  68  statements  and  25  verified  cases, 
the  percentage  in  the  two  lowest  classes  becomes  16.1  per  cent,  which  is 
obviously  much  too  low  in  comparison  with  the  trend  shown  in  the 
verified   Workhouse   data.      For    this    reason    the    Workhouse    group 


FACTORS  IN  EARLY  HOME  CONDITIONS  219 

has  been  omitted  in  the  discussion  of  home  conditions.  In  each 
institutional  group  the  percentage  of  the  poorer  classes  is  smaller  when 
we  take  the  subject's  statement  alone,  than  whe^i  we  use  the  verified 
data  alone,  but  in  no  group  except  the  Workhouse  is  the  difference  be- 
tween the  combined  data  and  the  verified  data  so  striking  as  to  make 
the  combined  data  of  little  value. 

(/)  Presentation  of  Cases  Representing  Various  Classes  of  Home 

Conditions 

Because  the  group  of  women  in  Bedford  has  been  most  carefully 
studied  and  because  we  have  come  to  know  these  families  most  thor- 
oughly, we  shall  present  a  number  of  the  cases  in  this  group  and  two 
cases  in  the  Penitentiary,  showing  the  various  types  of  homes  included 
in  the  five  classes  of  home  conditions. 

The  two  cases  we  shall  give,  representing  class  1,  are  in  many 
ways  alike,  but  show  varying  degrees  of  immorality,  poor  economic 
standards,  and  parental  supervision.  The  method  of  treatment  has 
also  been  different  in  these  two  cases. 

1.  Mary  M ,  16  years  and  2  months  old  at  the  time  of  her  com- 
mitment to  Bedford,  was  born  in  a  small  country  town.  Her 
father  died  one  month  before  Mary  was  born;  her  mother,  who 
had  a  questionable  Peputation,  went  to  live  with  another  man  soon 
after  the  child's  Mrth,  and  Mary  and  her  sister  were  taken  by  the 
maternal  grandmother,  with  whom  Mary  has  lived  nearly  all  of 
her  life.  The  home  conditions  there  have  been  very  poor.  The 
grandfather  for  years  kept  the  "Penny  Bridge"  for  which  he  re- 
ceived a  very  small  pittance.  Living  in  the  same  house  were  two 
of  Mary's  uncles,  both  of  them  shiftless,  good-for-nothing  and  never 
contributing  anything  to  the  family  support.  As  a  result,  the 
family  often  had  to  be  aided  by  the  town,  in  order  to  eke  out 
the  most  miserable  kind  of  an  existence.  The  school  record 
shows  that  Mary  and  her  sister  came  to  school  very  poorly  clad 
and  having. had  nothing  to  eat.  Through  the  school,  a  complaint 
was  made  to  a  charitable  organization  who  gave  the  family 
financial  aid,  but  did  not  remove  the  children  from  the  house.  The 
house  which  the  field  worker  visited  was  a  small  frame  house  con- 
sisting of  3  rooms  with  a  rental  of  $3  a  month.  In  this  house,  which 
was  filthy  and  malodorous  at  the  time  of  the  visit,  the  grandmother 
and  two  uncles  lived,  but  occasionally  an  aunt  was  there  with 
one  of  her  children.  The  grandmother  said  that  there  was  a 
curtain   in  the  upstairs  room  between  the  bed   in  which   she  and 


220     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

Mary  slept  and  her  sons'  bed.  The  moral  standards  have  been, 
as  the  judge  said,  "as  low  as  possible."  The  grandmother  is 
notorious  as  an  immoral  woman,  and  at  one  time  left  home  to 
live  with  a  negro  workman.  Mary  herself  is  supposed  to  have 
been  immoral  with  her  uncle  who  is  undoubtedly  mentally  defec- 
tive, and  who  has  a  long  jail  record  for  minor  offenses.  In 
this  home,  each  of  the  three  factors  of  economic  status,  moral 
standards  and  parental  supervision  was  placed  in  the  lowest 
class.  These  poor  home  conditions  were  known  by  the  girl  from 
shortly  after  her  birth  until  the  time  of  commitment  to  Bedford.  She 
was  convicted  of  prostitution  but  had,  with  little  doubt,  been  promis- 
cuous sexually  long  before,  and  is  thought  to  have  prostituted  for 
money.  This  she  had  seen  in  her  home,  and  in  addition,  the  fact  that 
no  moral  standards  had  been  inculcated  in  her,  her  need  of  money 
and  the  willingness  on  the  part  of  her  family  to  have  her  prosti- 
tute, were  all  factors  making  this  easy  method  of  earning  money 
the  most  desirable  and  profitable  thing  for  her  to  do. 

2.     Another   case   which    we    grouped    in    the    lowest    class    is   that    of 

Jane    H .      At    the    time    of   her    commitment    to    Bedford    for 

"Exposure  of  person"'  she  was  twenty  years  and  eight  months  of  age. 
She  was  born  in  a  small  village  in  New  York  State  and  lived 
there  with  her  people  until  she  was  about  eight  years  old  when  she 
was  placed  in  an  Orphanage.  Three  years  later  she  was  returned 
to  her  people,  but  after  a  time  was  again  brought  back  to  the 
Orphanage  where  she  remained  until  she  was  eighteen.  Our  infor- 
mation is  obtained  from  the  very  complete  records  of  the  Orphan- 
age, from  the  Humane  Society  which  handled  the  case  when  the 
children  were  taken  from  the  home,  and  from  the  older  children 
in  the  family  who  were  able  to  remember  something  of  the 
early  home  conditions.    There  were  eight  children  in  the  family  and 

they  all  lived  in  the  depths  of  the  backwoods  of  R County, 

New  York.  Both  the  mother  and  father  were  very  heavy  drinkers 
and  used  to  "carouse  and  act  shameful."  Three  of  the  children  in 
the  family  were  illegitimate,  and  the  father  as  v-'ell  as  the  mother 
was  known  to  be  grossly  immoral.  When  the  children  were 
brought  to  the  Orphanage  they  seemed  more  like  wild  animals 
than  human  beings;  they  would  run  and  hide  when  they  saw 
any  one  coming.  They  had  had  no  training  of  any  kind.  The 
house  was  "little  better  than  a  pig-pen" ;  the  children  were  often 
left  there  at  night  with  no  fire,  and  even  by  huddling  together 
they  could  not  keep  warm.  There  was  never  enough  to  eat — 
usually  only  dry  bread  in  the  house.  The  children  were  not  sent 
to   school   and   "ran   wild  the   most   of  the  time."     In   this   family 


FACTORS  IN  EARLY  HOME  CONDITIONS  221 

the  conditions  of  living  were  probably  even  lower  than  in  the 
case  just  cited,  but  the  children  were  found  before  they  had  spent 
their  entire  childhood  in  the  home,  and  were  given  fair  ad- 
vantages during  the  time  they  were  in  the  Orphanage.  The 
effect  on  the  girl  under  consideration,  however,  since  she  spent 
altogether  over  nine  years  with  her  parents,  seemed  important 
enough  to  estimate  the  home  conditions  as  very  poor. 

For  Class  2  we  shall  present  two  cases,  one  from  New  York  and 
one  from  a  small  village.  They  both  represent  conditions  appre- 
ciably better  than  those  just  given. 

1,     Alice  B was  committed  to  Bedford  at  the  age  of  twenty  years, 

seven  months  for  contracting  an  infectious  disease  in  the  practise  of 
debauchery.  She  was  born  in  Brooklyn  and  lived  there  the  most 
of  her  life.  She  lived  with  her  parents  until  she  was  nine,  when 
her  mother  died,  and  she  was  taken  by  her  maternal  grandmother. 
While  the  mother  was  living,  the  family  had  a  hard  time  to  get 
along  because  the  father  spent  so  much  money  for  drink.  He 
was  not  faithful  to  his  wife  and  treated  her  very  badly.  The 
grandmother's  home,  to  which  Alice  went  when  she  was  nine,  is  in  a 
fairly  good  residential  district  and  is  a  good  house  which  the 
grandmother  owns.  The  father  gave  no  money  for  the  children's 
support,  however,  and  the  grandmother  would  not  spend  her  money 
in  caring  for  them.  Various  complaints  were  made  to  the  Children's 
Society  concerning  this  home  and  alleging  that  the  children  did 
not  have  proper  guardianship.  The  school  reported  that  "the 
grandmother  is  a  miser.  She  goes  around  picking  up  wood,  etc. 
The  children  used  to  sleep  on  the  floor,  on  piles  of  filthy  rags  in- 
fested with  vermin  with  only  newspapers  over  them  in  winter. 
Their  clothing  was  filthy  and  ragged  when  they  came  to  school, 
which  was  only  irregularly."  The  Children's  Society  also  had 
reports  of  Alice  having  to  "get  beer"  for  the  grandmother,  which 
necessitated  her  being  on  the  streets  entirely  too  much.  Upon 
investigation  by  the  Society,  it  seemed  that  these  reports  had 
been  exaggerated  but  that  there  undoubtedly  was  some  truth  in 
them,  and  that  there  had  not  been  proper  supervision.  These  con- 
ditions were  improved  under  the  supervision  of  the  Children's 
Society.  In  this  home,  the  economic  standards,  except  for  the 
time  before  the  intervention  of  the  Children's  Society,  were  not 
so  low  as  in  the  other  cases,  and  in  the  grandmother's  home 
there  was  a  certain  amount  of  ready  money  which  she  later  con- 
sented to  use  for  the  children.  Under  the  supervision  of  the 
Children's    Society,   Alice   and   her   sister   were   looked   after   more 


222      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

carefully.  The  moral  standards  while  low  in  the  father's  home 
were  not  so  essentially  a  part  of  the  home  as  in  the  cases  of 
Mary  M and  Jane  H . 

2.     Jennie   B ,   committed  to   Bedford   for  violating  the  liquor  tax 

law,  was  born  in  a  small  village  25  years  and  6  months  before  her 
conviction.  Her  mother  died  when  she  was  three  years  old  and 
she  went  to  live  with  her  maternal  grandparents  where  she  re- 
mained for  three  years.  She  then  went  to  live  with  her  stepmother 
who  did  the  best  she  could  to  provide  for  the  family  and  was 
a  very  fine  woman.  The  father  was  so  alcoholic  and  abusive,  how- 
ever, that  the  stepmother  left  him  when  Jennie  was  eleven.  After 
this,  Jennie  kept  house  for  her  grandfather,  father,  uncle  and 
brother.  The  home  conditions  were  bad  for  her  during  this 
period  because  she  had  little  supervision  and  her  father  and  uncle 
were  drinking  men.  She  used  to  go  to  the  saloon  for  her  father 
at  that  time,  and  the  men  who  frequented  this  place  would  give 
her  nickels  to  sit  on  the  bar  and  sing  for  them.  When  she  was 
fourteen  she  went  out  to  do  housework.  This  girl,  aside  from 
her  father's  drinking,  had  a  decent  home  until  she  was  3  and  from 
the  time  she  was  6  until  she  was  11.  After  that,  and  at  her  most 
impressionable  years,  she  was  thrown  on  her  own  resources,  had 
no  one  to  look  out  for  her,  and  there  was  no  woman  in  the 
house.  As  a  whole,  we  feel  that  each  of  the  factors  in  the  home, — 
the  economic  and  moral  standards,  and  the  parental  supervision 
belong  in  the  poor  class,  and  that  the  total  estimate  of  the  home 
would  fall  in  this  class. 

For  Class  3,  which  represents  cases  in  appreciably  better  home 
surroundings,  we  shall  give  two  cases. 

1.     Sarah  S was  committed  to  Bedford  when  seventeen  years,  six 

months  of  age  for  associating  with  dissolute  persons  and  being  in 
danger  of  becoming  morally  depraved.  She  was  born  in  New  York 
City  and  lived  there  all  of  her  life.  Her  father  has  for  years  worked 
in  a  shoe  factory  and  in  the  rush  seasons  earns  from  $14  to  $18 
a  week  though  he  only  earns  about  $6  a  week  during  the  slack 
seasons.  The  oldest  boy,  who  is  not  married,  earns  $14  a  week 
and  helps  out  with  the  family  expenses.  There  are  five  children  in 
the  fraternity  including  ,  Sarah.  On  the  whole,  because  of  the 
mother's  good  managing  ability  and  the  fact  that  the  father  has 
always  worked  steadily,  though  at  times  he  earned  little,  the 
economic  standards  may  be  classed  as  mediocre.  The  family 
has   never   needed   to    accept    charitable   aid,    and   the    father   has 


FACTORS  IN  EARLY  HOME  CONDITIONS  223 

been  able  to  keep  up  his  membership  in  a  Jewish  benefit  lodge. 
There  seems  to  be  a  good  family  spirit  and  the  family  have 
good  moral  standards.  Sarah  is  the  only  one  in  the  family  who 
has  ever  been  in  court.  The  parents  are  quite  foreign  and  have 
not  quickly  adapted  themselves  to  the  customs  in  this  country. 
As  a  result,  a  large  part  of  the  supervision  has  fallen  on  the 
oldest  boy  who  has  exerted  his  influence  rather  unpleasantly  at 
times.  On  the  whole,  however,  the  home  has  been  fair  and  the 
girl  had  a  chance  of  making  good  so  far  as  the  influence  of  her 
home  conditions  was  concerned.  In  our  estimates  of  the  factors 
in  the  home,  we  have  classed  the  estimate  of  the  moral  stand- 
ards as  good  and  all  of  the  other  estimates  as  fair. 

2,     Kate   M was   sent  to   Bedford  when  eighteen  years  and  five 

months  old  for  prostitution.  She  was  born  in  a  village  in  Massachu- 
setts and  lived  there  and  in  a  small  city  in  New  York  state  most  of 
her  life.  Her  father  died  shortly  before  her  birth.  He  was  an 
erratic,  unstable  sort  of  man,  shiftless  and  quite  lazy,  so  that 
there  was  no  money  left  after  his  death,  and  his  wife  and  children 
had  to  live  with  his  father.  A  few  years  after  his  death,  the 
mother  remarried  and  took  her  children  to  New  York  state  with 
her.  The  home  with  the  stepfather  was  fairly  good.  He  worked 
steadily  and  tried  to  provide  well.  When  Kate  was  nine,  however, 
her  grandparents  in  Massachusetts  offered  to  take  care  of  her 
and  so  she  went  back  to  them,  remaining  until  she  was  fourteen. 
The  grandfather  owned  several  houses  and  provided  well  for  the 
child.  She  went  to  school  regularly,  finishing  grammar  school, 
and  the  grandfather  was  anxious  to  send  her  through  college. 
They  were  very  respectable  old  people  and  had  a  good  standing 
in  the  community,  but  were  undoubtedly  too  old  to  exert  proper 
authority,  so  that  Kate  was  allowed  to  have  her  own  way  in 
everything.  When  fourteen  years  old,  she  decided  that  she  wanted 
to  go  back  to  her  mother,  and  despite  her  grandparents'  protesta- 
tions, she  did  so.  After  reaching  home,  she  found  that  she  did  not 
get  on  well  with  her  mother,  after  having  been  away  from  home  for 
five  years.  She  resented  her  mother's  affection  for  the  children  by 
the  second  husband  and  imagined  that  her  mother  slighted  her  in 
every  possible  way.  Finally,  she  left  home  the  day  after  Christmas 
because  she  thought  her  mother  had  not  given  her  as  many  gifts 
as  the  other  children  had.  Without  any  supervision  on  the  out- 
side, she  steadily  went  from  bad  to  worse  and  within  a  few  months 
had  been  arrested  and  committed  to  Bedford.  In  estimating  this 
girl's  case,  the  economic  status  and  moral  standards  were  classed 
as  good,  parental   supervision  as  poor,   and  the  total  estimate  as 


224      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

fair.  It  would  seem  that  this  girl  with  her  good  mentality,  her 
responsiveness  and  desire  to  please,  might  have  been  managed  so 
that  she  would  not  have  come  into  contact  with  the  law.  She  was 
always  a  difficult  child,  high-strung,  nervous  and  irritable,  but  these 
qualities  were  only  exaggerated  by  the  lax  supervision  in  her  grand- 
parents' home  and  the  more  strict  and  less  sympathetic  atmosphere 
in  her  mother's  home  when  she  was  of  the  age  where  she  needed 
very  careful  guidance. 

Class  4,  which  includes  good  homes,  comfortable  economically, 
wath  good  moral  standards  and  parental  supervision,  comprises  only 
6.0  per  cent  of  the  cases  in  the  total  group.  (Table  66.)  The  fol- 
lowing case  is  typical  of  a  large  part  of  these  cases. 

1.     Carrie  C was  committed  to  Bedford  when  21  years,  5  months 

of  age  for  petit  larceny.  She  was  born  in  a  village  on  Long 
Island  and  lived  there,  always  in  the  same  house  which  her 
mother  owned,  until  she  was  married  at  the  age  of  twenty.  The 
field  worker  in  this  case  had  an  excellent  opportunity  to  see  for 
herself  the  house  and  neighborhood  in  which  the  girl  had  grown 
up.  Carrie's  father  was  a  mason  and  earned  from  $30  to  $40  a 
week.  Since  he  worked  steadily  and  had  only  three  children  to  bring 
up,  they  were  always  comfortable  economically.  They  bought  a 
two-story  and  basement  house  in  which  Carrie  was  boin,  and 
when  the  father  died  in  1914  he  left  a  $3,000  life  insurance.  Both 
the  father  and  mother  are  well  thought  of  in  the  community 
and  are  both  spoken  of  as  having  good  moral  standards.  The 
mother  has  meant  to  do  well  for  her  children,  and  since  her 
husband's  death  has  spent  a  great  deal  of  money  to  make  them 
comfortable.  She  is  of  a  nagging,  dictatorial  disposition,  how- 
ever, and  at  times  has  undoubtedly  been  disagreeable.  There 
was  a  certain  amount  of  friction  between  Carrie  and  her  mother, 
particularly  over  the  man  the  girl  wanted  to  marry.  In  her  an- 
tagonism to  him  and  her  way  of  handling  the  situation,  the  mother 
showed  poor  judgment  and  little  understanding.  There  does  not 
seem  to  be  evidence,  here,  of  a  very  important  connection  betweeii 
the  girl's  offense  and  her  home  conditions.  Her  family  were  honest 
and  law-abiding  and  had  taught  her  to  be  so.  Her  thefts  from 
the  department  store  in  which  she  was  working  over  the  holidays 
seem  to  have  been  prompted  by  the  suggestions  of  the  floor-walker 
who  wanted  to  share  the  proceeds  with  her  and  by  her  own  economic 
need  at  that  time,  since  her  husband  was  ill  and  she  was  too  proud 
to  ask  her  mother  for  money. 


FACTORS  IN  EARLY  HOME  CONDITIONS  225 

2.     A  quite  different  case  for  this  class  is  that  of  a  colored  girl.  Sarah 

E ,  23  years,  9  months  of  age  at  the  time  of  her  commitment  to 

Bedford  for  prostitution.  She  was  an  illegitimate  child  and  was 
boarded  by  her  mother  with  her  foster  mother  from  the  time  she 
was  two  weeks  old  until  she  was  eighteen  months  old.  Then,  be- 
cause her  mother  was  not  paying  for  the  child's  board,  Mrs.  E 

took  Sarah  to  her  mother  and  told  her  she  could  not  keep  her.    The 

mother  later  abandoned  Sarah  and  when  Mrs.  E heard  of  this 

she  went  to  the  Society  which  was  caring  for  the  child  and  took  her 
home  with  her.  Sarah  has  lived  with  her  foster  parents  since  then 
and  has  had  a  good  home  with  them.  They  own  their  own  home  in 
Brooklyn,  a  two-story  and  basement  frame  house  with  a  yard  around 
it.  The  house  is  well  furnished  and  in  good  condition.  All  of  the 
family  are  insured  and  the  foster  father  has  earned  good  wages  as  a 
porter.  The  foster  parents  have  good  moral  standards  and  are 
well  spoken  of  by  every  one  in  the  community.  Undoubtedly, 
Sarah  has  been  given  excellent  training.  The  only  objection 
w^hich  could  be  raised  in  regard  to  the  amount  of  supervision  is 
that  the  foster  mother  left  the  home  to  work  out  quite  often  when 
Sarah  was  younger  and  this  left  her  at  home  with  no  one  to  look 
out  for  her  after  school  hours.  On  the  whole,  however,  the  home 
ranks  high, — way  above  that  for  any  other  colored  girl  in  our  group. 
We  have  estimated  the  home  as  good  in  economic  status  and  moral 
standards  and  as  fair  in  parental  supervision.  The  girl  in  question 
is  very  low  grade  mentally  and  probably  no  home  training  could 
have  kept  her  from  doing  certain  things  if  the  temptation  or  oppor- 
tunity to  do  so  were  put  in  her  path.  Certainly,  in  a  survey  of  her 
actual  home  surroundings  there  is  no  obvious  association  with  her 
delinquency. 

The  fifth  class,  those  with  excellent  homes,  has  only  t\vo  representa- 
tives in  our  total  group,  and  they  hoth  come  in  the  Penitentiary.  In 
considering  the  estimates  of  certain  factors  in  the  home,  only  two  other 
cases  were  found  where  any  element  in  the  home  conditions  came  up 
to  the  highest  class.  These  two  cases,  both  in  Bedford  and  previously 
mentioned  in  connection  wnth  the  economic  status,  reached  the  highest 
class  only  in  the  economic  status,  however. 

1.  The  first  of  the  Penitentiary  cases  whose  early  home  surroundings 

were  very  good  is  Nina  R ,  who  at  the  time  of  her  commitment 

to  the  Penitentiary  for  petit  larceny  was  49  years  and  5  months  of 
age.  The  field  worker  was  able  to  visit  the  childhood  home  and 
obtain  information  both  from  members  of  the  immediate  family  and 


226     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

from  friends,  so  that  our  information  is  probably  reliable.  Nina 
R — y-  was  born  in  a  small  town  in  the  East  and  lived  there  until 
she  went  to  boarding  school,  when  she  was  about  fifteen.  Her  father, 
a  wheelwright  by  trade,  was  a  steady  worker  and  "plain,  simple  and 
upright  in  every  wa_\."  He  owned  his  home  and  they  were  in  com- 
fortable circumstances,  though  never  wealthy.  The  mother,  also, 
was  a  woman  of  fine  character.  The  grandfather  was  a  Quaker 
preacher  and  all  of  his  children  were  Quakers  of  strict  standards. 
There  were  five  children  in  Nina's  fraternity.  The  oldest  studied  to 
be  a  doctor  and  one  other  child,  after  teaching  school  for  fourteen 
years,  took  a  nurse's  training  course.  All  who  knew  the  parents  felt 
that  they  were  intelligent  and  made  a  very  good  home  for  their  chil- 
dren. Nina  herself  was  sent  to  boarding  school  from  which  she 
graduated  and  then  taught  school  for  twelve  years.  In  moral  stand- 
ards and  parental  supervision,  this  family  was  rated  as  being  very 
good,  and  the  economic  status  was  classed  as  good. 

2.  The  other   woman  who   came   from   a   very  good  home   is   Hannah 

M who  at  58  years,  4  months  was  committed  to  the  Penitentiary 

for  arson.  She  was  born  in  Germany  and  lived  there  until  she  was 
nineteen  years  old,  when  she  came  to  this  country  with  her  husband. 
We  were  able  to  interview  the  woman's  older  brother  who  seemed 
sincere  and  anxious  to  give  any  information  which  might  be  of  bene- 
fit. He  says  that  the  family  in  Germany  were  comfortably  well-to- 
do,  very  good  people  and  well  educated.  The  father  was  an  in- 
terior decorator,  not  wealthy,  but  determined  to  give  his  children 
the  best  possible  education.  Hannah  was  educated  for  a  teacher 
and  was  in  school  until  she  was  nineteen,  when  she  was  married  to  a 
physician.  So  far  as  we  know,  this  home  offered  very  good  ad- 
vantages. We  have  estimated  the  economic  status  as  good  only, 
since  there  seemed  to  be  no  great  surplus  of  money,  but  have  con- 
sidered the  other  factors  as  very  good. 

In  neither  of  these  two  cases  were  the  home  conditions  in  any 
sense  involved  in  the  difficulty  with  the  law  which  came  much  later  in 
life. 

As  a  whole,  the  home  conditions  of  the  bulk  of  our  cases  are  repre- 
sented by  such  homes  as  those  of  Alice  B and  Sarah  S ,  i.e., 

(1)  cases  where  the  home  has  been  poor,  and  where  only  a  child  of 
unusual  initiative  would  reach  out  beyond  what  the  home  had  offered 
her,  and  (2)  cases  where  the  home  V(/as  sufficiently  good  so  that  there 
seemed  a  fair  chance  for  the  child  to  develop  into  a  good  instead  of 
an  anti-social  person. 


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228     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELfNOUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

(g)  Relationship  Between  Estimate  of  Home  Conditions  and  Age  at 

First  Conviction 

In  various  later  chapters  we  have  considered  the  relationship  of 
given  social  factors  to  the  estimate  of  the  home  conditions.  At  this 
point  we  shall  consider  the  relationship  between  the  age  at  first  con- 
viction and  the  home  conditions  during  childhood  and  adolescence. 
Table  68  presents  these  data  in  a  correlation  ratio.  The  ratio  of  .31 
with  a  relatively  small  standard  deviation  of  .044  would  indicate  that 
there  is  a  significant  relationship  between  the  age  at  first  conviction  and 
the  estimate  of  home  conditions,  with  a  tendency  for  those  who  come 
from  the  worst  homes  to  be  convicted  earliest.  This  is  shown  by  the 
mean  age  at  first  conviction  for  the  various  estimate  groups,  with  the 
mean  age  at  first  conviction  in  the  poorest  class  of  home  conditions  at 
22.1  years  while  there  is  a  progression  to  a  mean  age  at  first  conviction 
of  53.5  years  for  the  two  cases  which  fall  in  the  best  group  of  home 
conditions. 

{h)  Relationship  Bctzvcen  Estimate  of  Home  Conditions  and  Number 
of  Previous  Convictions 

If  we  turn  to  Table  69,  showing  the  correlation  between  the  num- 
ber of  previous  convictions  and  the  estimate  of  home  conditions,  we 
find  that  the  correlation  ratio  is  .05  with  a  standard  deviation  of  .049. 
This  seems  to  indicate  that  there  is  no  relationship  between  the  kind 
of  home  in  which  a  child  grows  up  and  the  extent  of  criminality  which 
develops  later. 

FAMILY  STATUS 

So  closely  associated  with  any  survey  of  home  conditions  as  to 
be  almost  inseparable  from  it  are  certain  other  factors,  such  as  the 
nativity  of  the  parents,  their  ages  in  relation  to  the  age  of  the  subject, 
the  number  of  children  in  the  family  and  the  subject's  order  in  the 
fraternity.  Though  these  factors  are  taken  into  consideration,  in  gen- 
eral, in  making  the  estimate  of  the  home  conditions,  they  seem  import- 
ant enough  to  repeat  in  detail  at  this  point. 

(a)  Nativity  of  Parents 

Table  70  gives  the  nativity  of  the  parents  by  institutional  groups, 
and  shows  that  the  percentage  of  women  with  both  parents  native  born 
varies  among  the  groups.  Bedford  has  a  high  percentage,  57.3  with 
both  parents  native  born,  Auburn  30.7  per  cent,  Probation  28.4  per 


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229 


230      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

TABLE  70 

NATIVITY  OF  PARENTS 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Nativity 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

Both  Native 

57.3 

30.7 

18.8 

26.9 

40.5 

28.4 

34  8 

White 

40.6 
16.7 

35.4 

17.3 
13.3 

61.3 

18.8 
66.7 

12.9 
14.0 

65.6 

14.6 

25.8 

50.6 

27.2 
1.2 

55.6 

22  3 

Colored 

12  5 

Both  Foreign 

55  1 

White 

35.4 

60.0 
1.3 

8.0 

66.7 
14.5 

62.4 
3.2 

7.5 

50.6 
9.0 

53.1 
2.5 

16.1 

53  9 

Colored 

1.2 

One  Foreign :  one  Native 

7.3 

10.1 

White 

Colored 

7.3 

8.0 

14.5 

7.5 

5.6 
3.4 

13.6 
2.5 

9.1 
1.0 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

96 

75 

69 

93 

89 

81 

503 

cent,  the  Penitentiary  26.9  per  cent  and  the  Magdalen  18.8  per  cent. 
In  view  of  the  fact  that  Auburn  and  the  Penitentiary  have  the  highest 
percentage  of  foreign  born  women,  it  is  of  interest  to  observe  that  the 
highest  percentage  of  foreign  or  mixed  parentage  occurs  in  the  Mag- 
dalen. The  Probation  group  also  has  a  higher  percentage  of  women 
with  foreign  or  mixed  parentage  than  Auburn,  though  the  percentage 
of  foreign  born  women  in  the  Probation  group  is  smaller  than  that  in 
Auburn. 

If  we  compare  the  nativity  and  parentage  of  our  total  group  with 
the  nativity  and  parentage  of  the  general  female  population  in  New 
York  state  in  1910^  we  find  the  following  results: 

General  Female  Population  Delinquent 

Nativity    and    Parentage                                   New  York  State  Women  in 

this  Study- 
Native  White 61.7  50.2 

Native   Parentage    34.1  20.4 

Foreign  or  Mixed  Parentage   27.6  29.8 

Foreign    White    36.5  30.9 

Negro    1.7  18.8 

All  Others    .1  2 

^Thirteenth  Census  of  the  United  States.     1910.     Vol.  III. 


FACTORS  IN  EARLY  HOME  CONDITIONS 


231 


In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  foreign  horn  dehnquent  women  in  this 
study  are  represented  in  the  total  group  of  deHnquents  by  much  less 
than  the  representation  we  might  expect  from  their  numbers  in  the 
general  population  (See  Chapter  VIII),  it  is  interesting  to  find  that 
among  the  native  white  of  foreign  or  mixed  parentage  the  delinquent 
group  has  a  larger  percentage  than  the  general  female  population. 
The  native  white  of  native  parentage,  on  the  othpr  hand,  are  34.1  per 
cent  of  the  general  population  but  only  20.4  per  cent  of  the  women  in 
this  study.  It  would  seem  from  this,  that  the  element  of  foreign  par- 
entage is  significant  as  a  factor  in  the  home  conditions  which  may  be 
associated  with  delinquency.  In  many  of  the  families  studied  the  in- 
ability of  the  foreign  parents  to  adjust  themselves  to  American  cus- 
,toms  is  striking,  particularly  when  the  children  become  quickly 
adapted  to  American  customs  and  are  ashamed  of  the  parents  because 
of  their  foreignness. 

(b)  Age  of  Parents  at  Time  of  Subject's  Birth 

A  further  factor  of  importance  in  the  home  is  the  relationship 
between  the  ages  of  the  parents  and  the  children.    Table  71  shows  the 


TABLE  71 

AGE  OF  MOTHER  AT  SUBJECT'S  BIRTH 
Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institution.^l  Groi 

JPS 

Age  of  Mother 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

11    t 
16 

o   16  years  

'21       "     

22^2 

33.3 

17.8 

18.9 

3.3 

2.2 

2.2 

3.2 
17.5 

22.2 
23.7 
11.1 
14.3 
4.8 
3.2 

1.8 

10.7 
26.8 
23.2 
14.3 
16.1 
5.4 
1.8 

1.9 
13.5 
19.2 

34.6 

11.5 

11.5 

3.9 

1.9 

1.9 

4.3 

27.7 

19.2 

14.9 

19.2 

4.3 

8.5 

2.1 

4.8 

11.3 

27.4 

24.2 

21.0 

4.8 

4.8 

1.6 

2.4 
17.3 

?1 

'26       "     

25.7 

?6 

'31       "     

22.7 

31 

'36       "     

16.2 

86 

'41       "     

8.7 

41 

'46       "     

4.6 

46 

'51       "     

2.2 

51 

'56       "     

.3 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

90 

63 

56 

52 

47 

62 

370 

Mean  Age  of  Mother  at  Subject's  Birth  (Total  Group) 27.66  ±  .401  years 

(T 7.71  ±  .284 


232      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

mother's  age  at  the  time  of  the  subject's  birth.  The  youngest  mother 
was  eleven  years  of  age,  and  the  oldest,  51  years  of  age  when  the  sub- 
ject was  born.  In  the  total  group,  2.4  per  cent  of  the  cases  or  nine  of 
the  delinquent  women  were  born  while  their  mothers  were  between 
eleven  and  sixteen  years  of  age.  The  largest  number  of  cases  occurs 
in  the  age  group  of  21  to  26  years.  For  the  total  group  the  mean  age 
of  the  mother  at  time  of  the  subject's  birth  was  27.66  years  with  a 
standard  deviation  of  7.71  years. 

About  the  same  trend  as  that  noted  above  is  shown  with  regard  to 
the  age  of  the  father  at  the  time  of  the  subject's  birth.  Table  72 
shows  that  the  range  of  ages  starts  at  13  years  and  runs  to  83  years.. 
In  this  latter  group  there  are  only  two  cases  and  in  both  instances 
the  father  was  81  years  old  at  the  time  the  subject  was  born.  The 
earlier  age  groups  do  not  show  as  high  a  percentage  for  the  father 
as  they  do  for  the  mother.  One  woman  in  the  Workhouse  was  born 
when  her  father  was  thirteen,  and  the  four  other  women  included  in 
this  group  were  born  when  their  fathers  were  seventeen  and  eighteen 
years  old.  For  the  total  group  the  average  age  of  the  father  at  the 
time  of  the  subject's  birth  was  32.95  years  with  a  standard  deviation, 
of  10.50  years.  This  average  age,  while  somewhat  higher  than  that 
of  the  mother  at  time  of  the  subject's  birth,  is  not  so  much  higher  as 
to  make  the  extreme  age  of  the  father  an  important  factor  in  the  life 
of  the  delinquent. 

(c)  Age  of  Subject  at  Time  of  Parent's  Death 

Another  factor  often  advanced  as  causative  of  delinquency,  is  the 
breaking  up  of  the  home,  through  death,  divorce,  etc.,  while  the  child 
is  young.  It  is  difficult  for  us  to  present  in  detail  a  table  showing  the 
exact  status  of  homes  regarding  the  parents  who  are  separated,  dead, 
imprisoned,  etc.,  since  our  group  of  women  is  of  varying  ages,  many  of 
them  so  old  that  we  should  naturally  expect  their  parents  to  be  dead, 
and  the  fact  of  their  being  dead  not  significant  as  indicating  any  ab- 
normal home  condition.  It  seems  of  interest,  however,  to  know  what 
percentage  of  these  women  were  very  young  when  either  parent  died. 
Table  7Z  has  been  made  to  show  the  percentage  of  delinquent  women 
who  were  under  five,  ten,  fifteen  and  twenty  years  of  age  at  the  time 
of  the  father's  and  of  the  mother's  death.  The  table  shows  that  there 
are  varying  percentages  of  women  in  each  of  these  age  groups.  The 
percentage  of  women  who  were  under  five  at  the  time  of  the  father's 
death  runs  from  8.3  per  cent  in  Auburn  and  the  Magdalen  to  21.4  per 


FACTORS  IN  EARLY  HOME  CONDITIONS 


233 


TABLE  72 

AGE  OF  FATHER  AT  SUBJECT'S  BIRTH 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Age  of  Father 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

13  to   18  years  

18    "    23       "     

'8^3 
28.6 

23.8 
15.5 
14.3 

2.4 
4.8 
1.2 

'i;2 

ii'o 

20.3 

23.7 

13.6 

15.3 

5.1 

5.1 

3.4 

1^7 

5'3 
26.3 
21.1 
12.3 

7.0 
17.5 

5.3 

^8 
1.8 

'i.'8 

3.9 
13.5 
21.2 

17.3 
13.5 
15.4 

7.7 
1.9 
3.9 
1.9 

4.6 

11.4 

9.1 

34.1 

15.9 

6.8 

9.1 

4.6 

2^3 
'2^3 

1.9 
11.5 

23.1 

23.1 

13.5 

13.5 

1.9 

5.8 

3.9 

1.9 

1.4 
10.1 

23    "    28       "     

22.4 

28    "    33       "     

33    "38       "       

24.1 
13.5 

38    "    43       "     

12.4 

43    "    48       "     

6.9 

48    "    53       "     

4.6 

53    "    58       "     

2.0 

58    "    63       "     

63    "    68       "     

68    "    73       "     

1.2 
.3 
.3 

73    "   78       "     

78    "   83       "     

.3 
.6 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

84 

59 

57 

52 

44 

52 

348 

Mean  Age  of  Father  at  Subject's  Birth  (Total  Group) 32.95  +  .562 

0- 10 .  50  ±  .  397 

cent  in  the  Workhouse.  The  total  group  shows  11.8  per  cent  who  were 
under  five  at  the  time  of  the  father's  death.  Probably  the  next  two 
age  groups  are  of  more  importance,  however,  because  they  include 
not  only  those  who  were  very  young  when  the  father  died  but  also  those 
who  were  of  the  ages  where  the  absence  of  a  father  in  the  home  would 
be  of  the  greatest  importance.  For  those  children  who  were  under  ten 
at  the  time  of  the  father's  death  there  were  18.6  per  cent  for  the  total 
group,  with  varying  percentages  in  the  institutional  groups.  The  per- 
centage of  children  under  fifteen  at  time  of  the  father's  death,  24.9 
per  cent  for  the  total  group,  is  probably  large  enough  tO'  indicate  a 
serious  lack  of  supervision  in  most  of  these  childhood  homes.  The 
next  age  group,  while  of  less  importance,  because  many  of  the  women 
affected  had  left  home  before  their  twentieth  year,  shows  that  34.7 
of  the  women  were  under  twenty  years  at  the  time  of  the  father's 
death.  We  have  not  presented  any  further  figures  since  we  are  most 
interested  in  the  home  during  childhood  and  adolescence. 


234     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

TABLE  73 

AGE  AT  TIME  OF  PARENTS'  DEATH 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Age 

KT  Time 

OP  Db.^th  of: 

Institutional  Groups 

Father 

Mother 

Under 

5 
years 

Under 

10 
years 

Under 

15 
years 

Under 

20 
years 

Under 
5 

years 

Under 

10 
years 

Under 

15 
years 

Under 

20 
years 

Bedford 

10.4 

8.3 

8.3 

9.3 

21.4 

12.5 

17.7 
15.3 
15.3 
16.3 

27.4 
18.8 

22.9 
20.8 
20.8 
26.7 
34.5 
22.5 

35.4 
26.4 
26.4 
34.9 
42.9 
40.0 

5.1 
10.4 
10.8 
11.0 
12.8 

7.1 

10.2 
14.3 
16.2 
14.3 
17.4 
9.5 

20.4 
20.8 
23.0 
20.9 
18.6 
13.1 

28.6 

Auburn 

23.4 

IMagdalen 

28.4 

Penitentiary 

31.9 

Workhouse 

25.6 

Probation 

19.1 

Total 

11.8 

J8.6 

24.9 

34.7 

9.4 

13.5 

19.4 

26.3 

Number  of  cases 

58 

91 

122 

170 

48 

69 

99 

134 

If  we  turn  to  the  child's  age  at  time  of  the  death  of  the  mother  we 
see  that,  for  the  most  part,  the  percentages  of  delinquent  women  who 
were  young  at  time  of  the  mother's  death  are  smaller  than  the  per- 
centages at  the  time  of  the  father's  death.  There  are  9.4  per  cent  of 
our  total  group  of  women  who  were  under  five  at  the  time  of  the 
mother's  death,  13.5  per  cent  who  were  under  ten,  19.4  per  cent  under 
fifteen,  and  26.3  per  cent  under  twenty  years  of  age.  ^ 

At  this  point  we  may  compare  with  our  data  Goring's  ^  figures  for 
the  ages  of  male  criminals  at  the  time  of  the  mother's  death.  The 
percentages  are  as  follows : 


Under     5  years 
"       10      " 
"       15      " 
"      20     " 


ing's  Study 

Women  in  this  Study 

7.7% 

9.4% 

15.4% 

13.5% 

25.2% 

19.4% 

35.5% 

26.3% 

This  shows  a  smaller  percentage  of  male  criminals  in  the  youngest 
age  group,  but  a  larger  percentage  in  the  other  groups,  than  we  find 
among  the  delinquent  women  of  this  study. 

'  Op.  cit.,  p.  422. 


FACTORS  IN  EARLY  HOME  CONDITIONS  235 

(d)  Number  of  Children  in  Fraternity 

Another  element  entering  into  the  consideration  of  home  and  fam- 
ily conditions  is  the  size  of  the  family.  Many  contend  that  most  crim- 
inals come  from  large  families,  especially  those  of  poorer  economic 
status  where  the  large  number  of  children  makes  decent  living  condi- 
tions impossible  and  leads  to  prostitution  or  stealing  as  a  means  of 
livelihood.  Others  feel  that  an  only  child  is  more  likely  to  "go^  wrong" 
because  she  has  had  less  training  in  the  appreciation  of  property  rights 
and  in  adapting  herself  to  others.  An  instance  of  this  occurs  in  the 
case  we  have  mentioned  previously  in  this  chapter  of  the  only  child 
in  a  wealthy  family.  She  was  pampered  and  spoiled  until  she  was 
eighteen  when  she  insisted,  despite  her  parents'  protest',  upon  marrying 
a  man  who  was  of  little  account.  Her  life  from  that  time  on, — her 
unwillingness  to  take  the  responsibility  of  looking  after  her  children, 
her  selfishness  at  the  time  of  her  mother's  illness  and  death,  and  her 
gradual  drifting  into  prostitution — seems  in  part  an  outgrowth  of  her 
early  training. 

To  show  the  range  of  number  of  children  in  the  fraternities  of  the 
delinquents,  we  present  Table  74.  This  indicates  that  the  range  is 
very  long  in  Bedford,  Auburn  and  the  Penitentiary  groups  and  pro- 
gressively shorter  in  the  Workhouse,  Probation  and  Magdalen.  The 
total  group  has  a  range  of  one  to  eighteen  children  in  the  family, 
with  the  greatest  concentration  between  three  and  seven  children.  The 
mean  number  of  children  for  the  total  group  is  5.76±.148  with  a  stand- 
ard deviation  of  3.8±.105. 

The  Census  figures  for  1910  give  the  number  of  persons  per  fam- 
ily in  New  York  State  as  4.5.*  The  Census  figures  do  not  include  the 
average  number  of  children  per  family,  but  we  are  safe  in  saying  that 
this  number  must  be  appreciably  less  than  4.5,  the  average  number  of 
persons  per  family.  This  would  indicate  that  the  women  in  our  group 
come  from  families  of  appreciably  larger  average  size  than  the  fam- 
ilies in  the  general  population.  We  might  also  compare  here  the  aver- 
age number  in  the  families  of  647  prostitutes  studied  in  Bedford  and 
reported  on  by  Dr.  Katharine  Bement  Davis  in  Mr.  Kneeland's 
book  on  "Commercialized  Prostitution  in  New  York  City."  ^  Dr. 
Davis  found  that  the  average  number  of  children  in  the  families  was 
3.99,  a  number  somewhat  less  than  the  average  number  for  our  group. 

*  Thirteenth  Census  of  the  United  States.     1910.     Vol.  III. 
'  Op.  cit.,  p.  170. 


236     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


TABLE  74 
NUMBER  OF  CHILDREN  IN  FRATERNITY 
Per  Cent  Distribution  by  Institutional  Groups 


Number  of 

Institutional  Groups 

Children  in 
Fraternity 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
Louse 

Probation 

Total 

1 

9.9 
11.9 
14.9 
11.9 
7.9 
7.9 
7.9 
5.9 
3.0 
4.0 
2.0 
4.0 
5.9 
1,0 
2.0 

3.8 

6.3 

8.8 

12.5 

8.8 

16.3 

12.5 

3.8 

7.5 

7.5 

3.8 

2.5 

2.5 

2.5 

1.3 

5.3 

8.0 

14.7 

13.3 

17.3 

9.3 

17.3 

5.3 

4.0 

5.3 

11.3 

4.7 
10.4 
12.3 
12.3 

8.5 
5.7 
8.5 
7.0 
3.8 
2.8 

.9 
7.6 
2.8 

.9 

12.0 
4.0 

11.0 
16.0 
8.0 
14.0 
5.0 
9.0 
7.0 
2.0 
2.0 
4.0 
3.0 
3.0 

14.6 

14.6 

13  5 

6.7 

10.1 

9 . 0 

13.5 

3.4 

4.5 

2.3 

4.5 

2.3 

1.1 

9.8 

2 

8.2 

3 

12.2 

4    

12.2 

5 

10.5 

6 

10.7 

7 

9.8 

S 

6.2 

9 

5.6 

10 

4.0 

11 

2.5 

12 

13 

2.4 
3.6 

14 

17 

18 

1.6 
.5 
2 

Total .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

101 

80 

75 

106 

100 

89 

551 

Mean  Number  of  Children  in  Fraternity  (Total  Group) . 
cr 


.5.76+.  148 
.3. 48+.  105 


This  again  we  may  compare  with  Goring's'^  figures  for  the  famihes 
of  male  criminals.  He  finds  that  the  mean  number  of  children  in  the 
family  is  6.89  with  a  standard  deviation  of  3.85.  This  would  indicate 
that  the  men  in  his  group  came  from  slightly  larger  families  than  do  the 
women  in  our  group.  He  has  computed  from  this  the  correlation 
ratio  of  nature  of  crime  with  the  number  of  children  in  the  family 
and  finds  that  the  ratio  is  .1±.04.  From  the  values  of  his  means,  he 
finds  that  those  convicted  of  fraud  tend  to  be  drawn  from  smaller 
families  than  those  convicted  of  other  offenses.  He  explains  this  by 
showing  that  the  social  class  from  which  the  fraudulent  criminals  are 
mainly  drawn  tends  to  be  restricted  in  size  of  family. 


Op.  cit.,  p.  422. 


FACTORS  IN  EARLY  HOME  CONDITIONS 


237 


(e)  Order  in  Fraternity,  of  Delinquent  Women 

The  order  in  the  fraternity,  which  is  closely  connected  with  the 
number  of  children  in  the  family,  is  of  interest  because  of  the  belief 
that  the  oldest  in  a  large  family  may  have  much  of  the  responsibility 
of  looking  after  the  others  and  may  be  neglected  if  there  are  many 
others  who  are  not  able  to  look  out  for  themselves.  Table  75  shows 
that  there  is  a  large  percentage  in  our  group,  28.9  per  cent,  who.  were 
the  oldest  in  the  family.  Since  Table  74  shows  that  there  are  only  9.8 
per  cent  of  the- cases  where  the  subject  was  the  only  child,  this  leaves 
19.1  per  cent  of  the  women  who  were  not  the  only  child  and  who  were 
the  oldest  in  the  family.  In  the  total  group,  and  by  comparison  with 
Table  74,  we  find  that  the  delinquent  women,  in  large  part,  come  from 
the  older  members  in  the  fraternity. 

(/)  Number  of  Full-term  Children 

Though  not  logically  related  to  the  subject's  home  as  a  child  or 
her  own  family  conditions,  we  shall  consider  here,  in  connection  with 


TABLE  75 

ORDER  IN  FRATERNITY 

Per  Cent  Distribution  by  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Ghoups 

Order  in 
Fraternity 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

1 

29.7 

20.8 

16.8 

15.8 

6.9 

5.0 

2.0 

1.0 

l^O 
1.0 

22.8 

15.2 

10.1 

17.7 

8.9 

7.6 

3.8 

2.5 

5.1 

1.3 

2.5 

1.3 

1.2, 

23.3 

20.6 

11.0 

9.6 

12.3 

15.1 

4.1 

1.4 

2.7 

28.6 

26.4 

16.5 

14.3 

5.5 

4.4 

1.1 

'2^2 

l^l 

29.8 

10.6 
19.2 
13.8- 

8.5 
8.5 
6.4 

1.1 
1^1 

37.5 
17.1 
18.2 
8.0 
3.4 
5.7 
6.8 
1.2 
1.2 

'l.'2 

28.9 

2 

18.4 

3 

4 

5 

6 

15.6 

13.3 

7.4 

7.4 

7 

8 

3.8 
1.1 

9 

10 

1.5 

.8 

11 

.8 

12 

.6 

13 

14 

.4 

Total .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

101 

79 

73 

91 

94 

88 

526 

238     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


TABLE  76 

NUMBER  OF  FULL-TERM  CHILDREN 

Per  Cent  Distribution  by  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Full-Term 
Children 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

0 

59.4 
24.8 
7.9 
4.0 
3.0 
1.0 

25.6 
33.3 
9.0 
11.5 
5.1 
2.6 
1.3 
5.1 
1.3 
2.6 
1.3 
1.3 

62.9 

24.3 

7.1 

2.9 

1^4 
1.4 

47.7 
19.6 
8.4 
8.4 
3.7 
5.6 
2.8 

i^g 

.9 

"'9 

52.5 

16.8 

14.9 

7.9 

5.0 

1^0 
'2^0 

63.0 

26.1 

6.5 

1.1 

52.1 

1 

23.7 

2 

9.1 

3 

6.0 

4 

5 

6 

3.3 

3.5 

1.8 
.9 

7 

.9 

8 

.2 

9 

.7 

10 

11 

18 

.4 
.6 
.2 

Total .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

101 

78 

70 

107 

101 

92 

549 

the  size  of  her  own  fraternity,  the  number  of  full-term  children,  total 
number  of  pregnancies  and  number  of  illegitimate  pregnancies  she 
has  had.  The  number  of  full-term  children,  which  we  shall  present 
first,  includes  both  legitimate  and  illegitimate  children.  Table  76 
shows  that  the  percentage  of  women  who  have  had  no  children  is  52.1 
per  cent  for  the  total  group,  but  that  the  percentage  varies  between 
institutional  groups,  the  three  groups  where  the  average  age  is  highest 
and  where  there  are  the  highest  percentages  of  married  women,  hav- 
ing the  smallest  percentage  without  children.  The  range  of  number  of 
children  is  also  longest  in  the  three  groups  first  mentioned,  i.e.,  Au- 
burn, the  Penitentiary  and  the  Workhouse. 

(g)  Niimher  of  Pregnancies 

If  we  compare  with  the  number  of  full-term  children  the  number 
of  times  the  delinquent  women  in  this  study  have  been  pregnant  we 
find  a  somewhat  different  distribution.  Table  77  shows  that  while 
the  range  for  the  total  group  remains  the  same  as  in  the  previous 
table   (Table  76),  the  percentage  who   have  never  been  pregnant  is 


FACTORS  IN  EARLY  HOME  CONDITIONS 


239 


much  smaller  in  each  institutional  group,  indicating  that  there  is, 
throughout,  a  considerable  number  of  women  who  have  had  miscar- 
riages or  abortions.  For  the  total  group,  there  are  9.8  per  cent  of 
the  women  who  have  been  pregnant  but  who  have  never  had  a  full- 
term  child. 

The  number  of  illegitimate  pregnancies  is  difficult  to  obtain  accu- 
rately, particularly  when  the  subject  herself  is  unwilling  to  talk  freely 
about  it.  With  the  best  data  that  could  be  obtained,  however,  we  find 
as  shown  in  Table  78  that  a  very  high  percentage  in  each  institutional 
group  have  had  no  illegitimate  children,  the  highest  percentage  being 
in  the  three  groups  where  there  are  the  largest  numbers  of  married 
women  and  in  the  Probation  group.  Bedford  and  the  Magdalen  which 
have  the  largest  number  of  illegitimate  pregnancies  have  a  range  of 
none  to  six  illegitimate  pregnancies  in  the  one  case  and  none  to  three 
illegitimate  pregnancies  in  the  other.  The  Bedford  woman  who  had 
six  illegitimate  pregnancies  is  an  Austrian  woman  who  has  lived  with 


TABLE  77 

NUMBER  OF  PREGNANCIES 

Per  Cent  Distribution  by  Institutional  Groups 


I 

VSTITVTIONAL    GrOUPS 

Number  of 

Total 

Pregnancies 

Peni- 

Work- 

Bedf 

orcl         Auburn 

Magdalen 

tentiary 

house 

Probation 

0 

49 

5          16.9 

44.3 

37.4 

43.6 

58.7 

42.3 

1 

23 

8          23.4 

32.9 

22.4 

16.8 

22 

.8 

23.2 

2 

10 

s 

9          16.9 
9          15.6 

17.1 
1.4 

10.3 
10.3 

14.9 
13.9 

12 
1 

.0 
.1 

13.3 

3 

8.8 

4 

4 

0           3.9 

4.7 

5.9 

3 

.3 

3.8 

5 

2 

0            6.5 

2.9 

8.4 

2.0 

2 

.2 

4.0 

6 

1 

0           2.6 

2.8 

1.1 

7 

1.3 

1.4 

1.0 

.6 

8 

1.3 
3.9 

i^g 

.2 

9 

.9 

10 

2.6 

.9 

.6 

11 

1.3 

1.0 

.4 

12 

1.3 

.2 

13 

1.3 

.2 

14 

1.3 

"^9 

i^o 

.2 

17 

.2 

18 

.2 

Total .  .  . 

100 

0        100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

10] 

[              77 

70 

107 

101 

92 

548 

240     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

TABLE  78 

NUMBER  OF  ILLEGITIMATE  PREGNANCIES 

Per  Cent  Distribution  by  Institutional  Groups 


Number  of 

Institutional  Gboups 

Illegitimate 
Pregnancies 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

0 

64.4 

18.7 

6.9 

6.9 

2.0 

84.4 

11.7 

1.3 

2^6 

64.3 

27.1 

7.1 

1.4 

83.0 
12.3 
.9 
.9 
.9 
.9 
.9 

86.1 

5.9 
3.0 
2.0 
1,0 
2.0 

89.1 
7.9 
3.3 

79.0 

1  

13  4 

2 

3.7 

3 

2.0 

4 

.7 

5 

.9 

6 

.4 

Total .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

101 

77 

70 

106 

101 

92 

547 

two  consorts.  She  was  probably  never  sexually  promiscuous  and  did 
not  go  with  any  other  man  while  she  was  living  steadily  with  one  con- 
sort. In  this  total  group  there  are  21  per  cent  of  the  women  who  have 
had  one  or  more  illegitimate  pregnancies. 


HEREDITARY   FACTORS 

The  more  important  part  of  the  family  history  which  requires  a 
much  further  study  than  we  can  give  it  at  this  point  is  the  matter  of 
the  heredity  and  the  details  of  certain  defective  strains  in  the  family. 
Because  this  is  such  a  large  subject  and  needs  careful  presentation  of 
family  histories  to  make  the  material  worth  anything,  we  shall  give 
here  only  the  summarized  data  which  we  were  able  to  obtain  through 
the  field  workers*  visits.  This  material  shows  the  occurrence  of  cer- 
tain specified  defective  strains  in  the  mother,  father,  sisters  or  broth- 
ers of  the  women  in  this  study.  The  distribution  of  delinquent  women 
by  institutional  groups,  for  specified  defects,  gives  in  each  case  the 
number  of  women  in  whose  immediate  families  (mother,  father  or 
sibs)  the  given  defect  occurs.  We  have  selected  for  observation  cer- 
tain significant  hereditary  factors,  particularly  those  stressed  by  mod- 
ern criminologists. 

"Alcoholic"  as  we  have  used  it  in  this  connection  includes  only 
those    who    are    excessively    alcoholic.     "Criminal    Record"    includes 


FACTORS  IN  EARLY  HOME  CONDITIONS  241 

those  who  have  had  a  conviction  in  any  court  for  any  offense.  "Epilep- 
tic" inchides,  wherever  possihle,  those  who  have  heen  so  diagnosed 
hy  tlie  family  physician;  where  this  diagnosis  was  not  possihle  the 
statements  of  reliahle  informants  have  been  used.  "Feeble-minded" 
probably  more  than  any  other  defect  noted  here  has  a  much  smaller 
jiercentage  of  cases  than  there  should  be  because  of  the  caution  of  the 
field  workers  in  calling  any  one  feeble-minded  who  was  not  obviously 
unable  to  look  out  for  himself.  "Insane"  includes  only  those  who 
have  been  confined  in  hospitals  for  the  insane  or  who  have  been  diag- 
nosed as  insane.  "Neurotic"  has  been  used  to  include  persons  of  de- 
cidedly high-strung,  irritable,  unstable  temperament,  difficult  to  live 
with.  "Sexually  irregular"  includes  those  concerning  whom  we  have 
been  able  to  get  definite  evidence  of  sexual  promiscuity.  "Suicide" 
and  "Tubercular"  are  self-explanatory.  "Venereal  disease"  is  inclu- 
sive of  both  syphilis  and  gonorrhea ;  the  information  on  this  is  prob- 
ably very  unreliable  because  of  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  this  informa- 
tion either  from  the  subject  or  other  members  of  the  family,  except 
in  Bedford,  where  the  immediate  families  of  nearly  all  of  the  girls  were 
very  well  known.  "Wanderer,"  which  is  a  term  used  in  the  eugenics 
studies  made  under  Dr.  Charles  B.  Davenport,  includes  those  con- 
cerning whom  we  had  definite  evidence  of  marked  nomadic  tendencies. 

Table  79  shows  the  frequency  of  occurrence  of  these  defective 
strains  in  the  immediate  families  of  the  women  in  this  study .'^  There 
are,  it  is  seen,  21.8  per  cent  of  the  women  in  whose  families  some 
member  has  been  excessively  alcoholic.  This  is  a  much  higher  per- 
centage than  Dr.  Davis  found  in  a  study  of  prostitutes  at  Bedford,^ 
where  35  girls  or  5.4  per  cent  of  her  total  group  came  from  families 
in  which  there  was  alcoholism.  However,  as  she  states,  her  figures 
are  largely  based  on  the  girls'  own  statements  and  are  probably  much 
lower  than  they  should  be. 

The  percentage  of  women  in  our  group  who  come  from  homes  in 
which  some  member  of  the  family  has  had  a  conviction  is  15.9. 
Though  we  have  no  way  of  measuring  the  percentage  of  families  in 
the  general  population  in  which  there  has  been  a  conviction,  this  per- 
centage would  seem  to  be  so  high  as  to  be  of  great  significance  in 

''Tfie  distribution  does  not  sliow  the  amount  of  overlapping  whicfi  occurs. 
There  may  be  alcoholism,  epilepsy  and  insanity  all  within  the  same  family.  In 
this  event,  each  defective  strain  is  counted  separately  so  that  the  percentage 
of  women  having  alcoholism  in  the  family  represents  all  cases  where  alcoholism 
occurs  either  as  the  only  defective  strain  or  in  combination  with  others. 

"  Op.  cit.,  p.  172. 


242     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

TABLE  79 

DEFECTIVE  STRAINS  IN  FATHER,  MOTHER  AND  MEMBERS  OF 

FRATERNITY 

Distribution  by  Institutional  Groups  and  Per  Cent  Distribution  for 

Total  Group  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Whose  Immediate  Families 

Specified  Defective  Strains  Occur 


Institutional  Groups 

Total 

Defective  Strains 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 

tentiarj' 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Number 

Per 
Cent 

Alcoholic 

32 
32 
10 

8 
2 
9 

32 
1 

20 
5 
6 

21 

13 

3 

1 
4 
2 
8 
1 
16 

5 

IS 
15 

4 
2 
3 
13 
2 
8 

2 

12 
6 
2 
1 
5 
6 
7 
3 

20 

12 

7 
1 
2 
4 
1 
8 
2 
18 

i 

19 
10 

1 
6 

'4 
11 

16 

2 
2 

114 
83 
17 
22 
17 
25 
79 

9 
98 

7 
16 

21.8 

Criminal  Record 

Epileptic 

15.9 
*3 

Feeble-minded 

4.2 

Insane 

*    3.3 

Neurotic 

4.8 

Sexually  Irregular 

Suicide 

15.1 
C7 

Tubercular    

18.8 

Venereal  Disease 

Wanderer 

■'V:3 
3.1 

Number  of  Women  with 
Specified    Defective 
Strains  in  Family 

67 

38 

35 

39 

35 

42 

256 

49.0 

Number  of  Women  not 
Having  Specified  De- 
fective   Strains    in 
Family 

34 

38 

40 

65 

51 

38 

266 

51.0 

Total  Number  of  Women 

101 

76 

75 

104 

86 

80 

522 

100.0 

affecting  home  conditions.  Closely  associated  w^ith  the  criminal  record 
is  the  amount  of  sexual  irregularity.  In  our  group  we  find  that  there 
was  sexual  irregularity  in  the  homes  of  15.1  per  cent  of  the  women. 
Tuberculosis  is  found  in  the  immediate  families  of  18.8  per  cent 
of  the  cases.  Each  of  the  other  defective  strains  noted  occurs  in  less 
than  5  per  cent  of  the  families.  We  feel  that  the  information  concern- 
ing the  defects  which  show  the  lower  percentages  is  probably  inade- 
quate and  that  exact  comparisons  are  not  justified.  As  a  whole,  we 
find  that  49.0  per  cent  of  the  women  in  our  group  had  at  least  one 
of  the  defective  strains  we  have  observed,  in  one  or  more  members  of 
their  families.     Many  of  these  families  had  several  of  the  defects  in 


FACTORS  IN  EARLY  HOME  CONDITIONS  243 

both  the  mother  and  father,  and  the  members  of  the  fraternity.^  Fifty- 
one  per  cent  of  the  women  in  the  group  came  from  families  in  which 
we  were  unable  to  find  any  of  the  defects  specified. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  whether  any  of  these  defects  of  poor  heredity 
are  directly  responsible  for  the  women  getting  into  difficulties  with 
the  law,  since  we  do  not  know  whether  such  defects  are  present  in  the 
same  proportion  in  the  general  population.  The  most  we  can  say  is 
that,  from  this  brief  survey  of  hereditary  strains  which  are  believed 
to  be  significant,  the  immediate  families  of  at  least  49.0  per  cent  of 
the  women  in  our  study  are  affected. 

Dr.  Davis  found  that  20.09  per  cent  of  the  prostitutes  at  Bedford 
had  "degenerate  strains"^'^  very  closely  corresponding  to  the  defective 
strains  we  have  just  discussed.  As  stated  before,  she  felt  that  this  did 
not  include  nearly  all  of  the  defects  which  should  have  been  included 
had  it  been  possible  to  make  more  thorough  investigations.  Dr.  Glueck, 
in  his  s'tudy  of  men  at  Sing  Sing,"  found  that  "alcohol  and  tuberculo- 
sis seem  to  have  been  rather  significant  hereditary  factors." 

SUMMARY 

In  summarizing  the  more  important  factors  which  relate  to  the 
early  home  or  the  family  status  of  the  women  whom  we  are  studying, 
there  stands  out  most  clearly  the  fact  that  the  .large  part  of  the  women_ 
have  come  froniLjtQQiiJiomes,  and  that  a  large  percentage  come  from 
families  with  defective  strains.  That  we  might  treat  the  informa- 
tion on  all  of  our  cases  alike,  an  estimate  was  made,  uniformly  for  all 
cases,  of  the  early  home  conditions  and  the  three  factors  which  we  felt 
were  most  important  in  the  home,  i.e.,  the  economic  status,  moral- 
standards  and  parental  supervision.  By  each  of  these  estimates,  the 
majority  of  the  cases  fall  in  the  very  poor,  poor  or  mediocre  classes. 
In  the  total  estimate  of  the  home  conditions  during  childhood  and 
adolescence,  46.4  per  cent  of  the  cases  fall  in  the  two  poorest  groups, 

'A  girl  of  17  committed  to  Bedford  came  from  a  family  in  which  the  father 
was  excessively  alcoholic,  going  ofif  on  "sprees"  periodically ;  he  was  feeble- 
minded, and  had  never  been  able  to  learn  to  read  or  write ;  he  was  sexually 
promiscuous  and  syphilitic ;  he  had  had  innumerable  convictions  for  intoxica- 
tion and  stealing ;  and  he  was  a  "wanderer,"  leaving  his  family  every  few 
months  and  moving  about  from  place  to  place,  always  thinking  he  could  "do 
better"  in  another  town.  The  mother  of  the  girl  was  also  feeble-minded,  epilep- 
tic and  sexually  promiscuous.  Two  of  the  younger  boys  in  the  family,  though 
under  16  years,  had  been  brought  into  court  several  times  for  petty  stealing, 
and  were  finally  sentenced  to  a  juvenile  institution  on  larceny  charges. 

'"Op.  cit..  p.   173. 

"  Op.  cit.,  p.  107. 


244      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

47.1  per  cent  in  the  mediocre  class,  and  6.5  per  cent  in  the  class  of 
homes  which  are  good  or  excellent. 

How  much  of  a  factor  the  element  of  poor  home  conditions  is, 
as  causative  of  delinquency,  it  is  difficult  to  judge,  since  we  have  no 
similar  estimates  for  the  general  population.  Within  our  own  group, 
(however,  we  are  able  to  show  that  there  is  a  _significatiL_C£lat.ionship_ 
[between  the  age  at  first  conviction  and  the  estimate  of  home  condi- 
tions, with  a  tendency  for  those  who  were  brought  up  in  the  poorest 
homes  to  be  convicted  at  an  earlier  age  than  those  who  were  brought 
up  in  better  homes. 

Certain  of  the  details  of  family  status  have  been  separately  con- 
sidered, though  to  a  certain  extent  they  enter  into  the  study  of  home 
conditions.  Among  these  details  we  find  that  for  the  most  part  the  age 
of  the  parents  was  not  extreme  in  relation  to  the  age  of  the  subjects 
in  this  study.  There  is  a  fairly  high  percentage,  24.9  per  cent,  of  these 
women  who  were  under  fifteen  at  the  time  of  the  father's  death,  and 
19.4  per  cent  who  were  under  fifteen  at  the  time  of  the  mother's  death. 
A  similar  observation  made  by  Goring  shows  that  he  found  25.2  per 
cent  of  male  criminals  under  fifteen  at  the  time  of  their  mother's 
death.  The  number  of  children  in  the  family  shows  that  the  general 
population  for  New  York  state  has  fewer  children  in  the  family  than 
there  are  in  the  families  of  the  delinquent  women. 

In  any  study  of  the  conditions  found  in  homes,  we  can  not  hope 
to  do  more  than  give  a  picture  of  the  kind  of  homes  from  which  the 
most  of  the  persons  in  whom  we  are  interested  come.  Very  few  at- 
tempts have  been  made  to  use  uniform  schemes  for  estimates  or  for 
grading  homes,  and  up  to  this  time  the  descriptive  method  has  been 
felt  to  be  of  more  value.  Because  of  this  trend,  there  is  little  available 
data  for  comparison,  and  we  are  able  to  say  little  more  regarding 
the  home  conditions  of  our  group  than  that  these  women  come  from 
the  poorer  classes,  to  a  very  large  extent,  and  that,  in  addition  to  poor 
economic  opportunities,  there  are  low  moral  standards  and  poor  super- 
vision of  the  children. 


CHAPTER  X 
EDUCATIONAL  BACKGROUND 

VIEWS    REGARDING    RELATION    OF    EDUCATION    TO    CRIME 

THE  significance  of  education  as  a  factor  in  relation  to  crime  has 
been  an  important  moot  point  in  criminology.  There  have  been  all 
varieties  of  contentions,  including  such  diverse  views  as  the  assertion 
that  education  is  a  definitely  harmful  factor,  increasing  any  latent 
tendency  toward  crime ;  the  insistence  that  lack  of  education  is  an  im- 
portant cause  of  criminality;  and  the  belief,  at  variance  with  both  of 
the  above,  that  education  as  such  is  not  an  important  factor,  but  ap-- 
pears  to  figure  merely  because  it  is  symptomatic  of  other  genuinely 
significant  influences,  such  as  mentality  and  social  background.  Ade- 
quate data  have  not  been  offered  as  yet  for  establishing  any  of  these 
views.  Aschaffenburg^  goes  so  far  as  to  insist  that  it  will  inevitably 
remain  lacking.     He  says  : 

"No  statistical  proof  of  the  influence  of  education  on  criminality  can 
ever  be  brought.  .  .  .  But — and  this  too,  unfortunately,  needs  to  be  ex- 
pressly mentioned — there  can  also  be  no  proof  to  the  contrary.  The  simple 
childlike  view,  that  the  degree  of  education  obtained  in  the  lower  schools 
menaces  the  harmless,  deeply  moral,  mode  of  thought  of  the  people,  this 
sentimental  glorifi^tion  of  the  people  in  their  primitive  state,  is  based 
on  entirely  vague  and  unfounded  prejudices.  It  is  not  increasing  education 
that  causes  the  growth  of  crime,  but  the  changes  that  have  taken  place  in 
all  external  conditions  in  the  course  of  the  last  centuries." 

We  are  not  willing  to  agree  that  it  will  be  impossible  ever  to 
analyze  the  complex  social  situation  sufficiently  to  reach  any  conclu- 
sions regarding  the  influence  of  the  educational  factor,  since  modern 
statistical  r.^ethods  can  go  far  toward  solving  just  such  difficulties. 
Statistics,  however,  must  have  an  adequate  basis  of  facts  on  which  to 
build,  and  that,  we  must  admit,  is  not  available  at  present.     Such  a 

^  Aschaffenburg,  G.  "Crime  and  Its  Repression,"  p.  137.  Trans,  by  A.  Al- 
brecht.     Little,  Brown  &  Co.     1913. 

245 


246     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

mode  of  approach  as  that  of  Lombroso,-  in  spite  of  its  apparent  foun- 
dation in  fact,  is  worse  than  futile,  since  it  may  lead  to  the  most  erro- 
neous conclusions.  The  general  line  of  argument,  with  its  almost  in- 
conceivable fallacies,  is  well  illustrated  by  the  following  passage  from 
Lombroso : 

"Tocqueville  shows  that  in  Connecticut  criminality  has  increased  with 
the  increase  in  instruction.  In  the  United  States  the  maximum  figures 
for  criminality  .  .  .  were  noted  in  Wyoming,  California,  and  Nevada, 
which  gave  the  minimum  number  of  illiterates  .  .  .  ;  and  the  minimum 
figures  for  criminality  were  found  in  New  Mexico  .  .  .  South  Carolina 
.  .  .,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Georgia,  and  Louisiana,  which  had  the  high- 
est number  of  illiterates.  Nebraska,  Iowa,  Maine,  and  Dakota  were  ex- 
ceptional, having  a  small  number  of  criminals  and  illiterates  both,  as  a 
result  of  other  causes  which  we  shall  see  presently.  In  England  the  coun- 
ties of  Surrey,  Kent,  Gloucester,  and  Middlesex,  where  there  is  a  higher 
degree  of  education,  gave  the  maximum  degree  of  criminality,  while  the 
minimum  was  shown  by  the  more  illiterate  districts,  North  Wales,  Essex, 
and  Cornwall."^ 

It  is  obvious  that  no  argument  can  carry  weight  if  it  is  based 
simply  on  a  crude  comparison  of  diiTerent  decades  or  different  sec- 
tions of  the  country  with  reference  to  the  amount  of  illiteracy  on  the 
one  hand  and  the  amount  of  criminality  on  the  other.  The  whole 
social  situation  underlying  such  differences  in  illiteracy  may  be  re- 
sponsible for  the  differences  in  criminality,  the  variations  in  illiteracy 
being  merely  side-products.  Specifically,  there  are  two  conspicuous 
ways  that  this  changing  social  situation  might  operate,  both  of  which 
would  tend  to  explain  the  apparent  relationship,  mentioned  above.  In 
the  first  place,  the  same  conditions  which  lead  to  better  school  oppor- 
tunities are  likely  to  involve  a  more  complicated  form  of  life,  with 
more  tensions,  restrictions,  and  interferences  of  one  individual  with 
another,  leading  thus  to  a  greater  probability  of  at  least  the  minor 
types  of  offenses.  In  the  second  place,  the  general  social  change  is 
likely  to  be  accompanied  by  the  establishment  of  more  rigid  and 
more  strictly  enforced  standards  of  conduct,  so  that  what  may  be 
only  deplored  in  one  community  may  be  a  legal  offense  in  another. 
These  varying  legal  standards  may  well  account  for  such  differences 
in  "criminality"  as  Lombroso  cites  between  various  sections  of  this 

^  See    Lombroso,     C.     "Crime :     Its    Causes    and    Remedies."     Chap.    VIII. 
Trans,  by  H.  P.  Horton.  Little,  Brown  &  Co.     19n. 
^  Op.  cit.,  p.  106. 


EDUCATIONAL  BACKGROUND  247 

country,  and  which  he  naively  accepts  as  proof  that  one  section  has 
more  delinquency  than  another.  The  United  States  Census  has 
pointed  out  very  convincingly  in  such  statements  as  the  following 
that  such  an  mference  is  untenable,  and  that  the  difference  in  ap- 
parent criminality  must  first  be  sought  in  a  comparison  of  the  laws 
and  the  provisions  for  law-enforcement  of  the  several  communities. 

"In  general  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  number  of  commitments 
represents  simply  the  number  of  violations  of  law  which  have  been 
punished  by  imprisonment.  A  high  ratio  of  commitments  to  population  may, 
therefore,  be  indicative  not  so  much  of  exceptional  criminality  and  law- 
lessness as  of  exceptional  efficiency  on  the  part  of  the  local  authorities, 
the  police,  and  the  courts  in  following  up  infractions  of  the  law,  by 
detecting  criminals  and  offenders  and  bringing  them  to  trial.  The  ratio 
may  thus  reflect,  in  some  degree,  the  public  sentiment  of  the  community  as 
regards  the  punishment  of  crime  and  minor  offenses."* 

We  may,  therefore,  disregard  as  quite  unfounded  Lombroso's  fears 
regarding  the  dangers  of  education  for  criminals  or  prospective  crimi- 
nals— fears  which  he  does  not  himself  entirely  dismiss  with  his  "com- 1 
forting  assurance  that  education  is  not  so  fatal  as  it  appears  at  first' 
to  be."^  So  foreign  to  the  current  acceptance  in  this  country  of  the 
value  of  education  is  the  point  of  view  that  is  fearful  of  the  influence 
of  school  training,  that  it  seems  a  superfluity  even  to  consider  the  prop- 
osition that  education  may  tend  to  increase  the  amount  of  crime.  We 
fear,  however,  that  the  present  point  of  view  on  the  matter  is  built  on 
very  little  more  adequate  factual  material  than  is  its  predecessor,  but 
that  this,  like  its  predecessor,  is  mainly  a  matter  of  conviction.  Reli- 
ance upon  education  as  a  deterrent  from  crime  is  in  accord  with  the 
spirit  of  the  times,  and  is  doubtless  the  safest  hypothesis  to  act  upon, 
since,  in  the  absence  of  evidence  to  the  contrary,  we  believe  that  educa- 
tion is  a  desirable  asset,  whether  it  is  a  preventive  of  crime  or  not.  » 

- Gorin£V;  discussion  of  the  problem, °  tliough  very  cursory,  has  the   \lO  \^\a.^ 
merit  of  limiting  itself  to  the  actual  data  available.     Considering  first      '*  O 

the  relation  to  recidivism  of  what  he  designates  as  "formal"  education, 
meaning  thereby  opportunity  for  instruction  as  represented  by  the 
kind  of  school  attended  and  the  age  at  leaving  school,  he  reaches  the 
following  conclusions : 

*  United    States    Census,    1910,    Volume   on    "Prisoners    and   Juvenile    Delin- 
quents," p.  19. 
'  Op.  cit.,  p.  108. 
"  Op.  cit.,  pp.  274-277. 


248      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

"From  the  a])ove  differences  of  mean  in  relation  to  their  probable 
errors,  it  would  appear,  firstly,  that  there  is  no  significant  relation  between 
a  convict's  formal  education,  when  a  child,  and  the  frequency  of  his  subse- 
quent convictions  for  crime,  or  that,  if  any  relation  there  be,  it  is  those 
who  have  received  no  school  education  who  are  the  least  frequently  con- 
victed; and,  secondly,  that  convicts  receiving  the  longest  terms  of  im- 
prisonment are  those  who  have  been  industrial  and  reformatory  school- 
boys, and  that  those  receiving  the  shortest  terms  are  those  who  have  not 
been  educated  at  any  orthodox  school.  Our  conclusion  is  that  the  kind  of 
school-education  they  may  have  received  has  no  traceable  influence  upon 
the  subsequent  careers  of  convicts ;  but  that,  since  industrial  and  reforma- 
tory school-boys  must  be  the  pick  of  those  with  the  greatest  law-breaking 
proclivities,  this  accounts  for  the  fact  that  convicts  with  the  worst  penal 
records  consist  of  those  who  have  passed  through  industrial  and  reforma- 
tory schools. 

"With  regard  to  age  at  leaving  school,  our  conclusion  is  similar,  and 
is  based  upon  the  partial  correlation  coefficients  of  age  with  penal  record 
for  constant  intelligence.  .  .  .  This  conclusion  is  that  their  age,  on  leaving 
school,  has  no  appreciable  influence  upon  the  subsequent  penal  career  of 
convicts."'^ 

His  conclusions  regarding  the  significance  of  what  he  calls  "effec- 
tive" education  are  practically  identical  with  the  above.  By  effective 
education  he  means  "the  apparent  profit  derived  from  whatever  formal 
education  has  been  received,"  which  he  measures  by  "(1)  the  standard 
or  form  reached  by  the  subjects  on  leaving  school,  and  (2)  the  grade 
of  education  apportioned  to  each  convict  on  his  reception  into  prison 
by  the  school-master."  With  the  second  of  these  measures  we  shall 
not  concern  ourselves,  since,  as  Goring  points  out,  the  effect  of  prison 
schools  undoubtedly  enters  in  here.  Accordingly  the  prison  ex- 
perience itself  is  being  measured  to  some  extent.  With  regard  to 
the  relation  of  recidivism  to  the  first-mentioned  measure — grade  at- 
tained on  leaving  school — he  concludes,  on  the  basis  of  -his  data  (op. 
cit.,  p.  276)  that  "with  increasing  number  of  convictions  recorded 
against  convicts,  there  is  no  significant  change  in  the  mean  standard 
attained  by  them  on  leaving  school."  Before  considering  this  point 
decisively  established,  however,  he  proceeds  to  eliminate  the  factor  of 
intelligence,  through  the  medium  of  partial  correlations,  making  intel- 
ligence the  constant  factor.  The  partial  correlation  coefficient  of 
school  education  with  number  of  convictions  per  year,   for  constant 

■  Op.  cit..  p.  275. 


EDUCATIONAL  BACKGROUND  249 

intelligence,  is  .0565 ±.0297;  that  of  school  education  with  fractions 
of  year  imprisoned,  for  constant  intelligence,  is  .0632±.0297.  It  is 
evident  that  these  small  coefficients  cannot  be  thought  of  as  signifi- 
cant. Accordingly  Goring  concludes  (loc.  cit.,  p.  276)  "that  the 
profit  derived  from  school  education  exerts  no  influence  upon  the 
subsequent  penal  records  of  convicts." 

LACK  OF  DATA  ON  EDUCATION  FOR  GENERAL  POPULATION 

The  data  off'ered  by  Goring  are  entirely  convincing,  as  justifying 
such  conclusions  as  he  permits  himself  to  draw.  He  leaves  completely 
untouched,  however,  the  question  of  how  the  "convict"  group  com- 
pares with  the  general  adult  population  with  regard  to  either  "formal" 
or  "effective"  education.  His  reasons  are  doubtless  the  same  as 
those  that  we  shall  have  to  offer:  zns.,  the  lack  of  information  regard- 
ing any  random  sample  of  the  general  population.  Until  we  have 
such  data  regarding  the  educational  background  of  adults,  we  shall 
not  be  able  to  make  a  pretense  of  answering  the  question  as  to  whether 
the  delinquent  is  differentiated  from  the  average  adult  by  either  a 
deficit  of  schooling  or  an  excess,  or  whether  no  difference  at  all  can 
be  demonstrated. 

The  fact  remains,  unfortunately,  that  for  us,  as  for  Goring  and 
earlier  investigators,  the  supplementary  data  are  lacking  which  might 
make  possible  a  solution  of  the  problem.  To  any  one  familiar  with 
the  manifold  recent  studies  of  school  systems  and  communities  with 
special  reference  to  problems  of  retardation  and  elimination,  this  may 
seem  at  first  thought  an  unnecessarily  pessimistic  statement.  Refer- 
ence to  such  studies,  however,  will  make  clear  the  fact  that  they  have 
been  concerned  entirely  either  with  children  actually  in  school,  or  with 
those  leaving  to  go  to  work.  These  furnish  no  basis  for  estimating 
the  educational  status  of  the  general  adult  population.  Accord- 
ingly we  shall  be  forced  again  into  the  position  which  we  have  had 
to  take  so  frequently  during  the  course  of  the  present  study,  of 
finding  it  necessary  to  offer  the  facts  regarding  our  group,  without 
being  able  to  draw  any  final  conclusions  because  of  the  absence  of  the 
supplementary  information  about  the  total  population.  We  shall  fol- 
low our  usual  practice,  however,  of  presenting  the  information  which 
we  have  secured,  in  the  hope  that,  at  some  future  time,  it  may  be  of 
service  in  carrying  through  the  necessary  comparisons.  Its  present 
usefulness  is  largely  confined  to  that  of  helping  to  describe  our  groups, 
and  of  furnishing  a  background  for  the  interpretation  of  the  educa- 


250      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

tional  status  of  an  individual  in  the  light  of  that  of  the  whole  delin- 
quent group  of  which  she  is  a  part. 

DISTINCTION    BETWEEN    EDUCATIONAL  OPPORTUNITIES   AND 
EDUCATIONAL    ATTAINMENTS 

We  shall  approach  the  educational  problem  from  two  quite  differ- 
ent points  of  view,  according  as  we  think  primarily  of  the  educational 
opportunities,  or  of  the  educational  attainments  of  these  individuals. 
If  we  understand  by  educational  opportunities  genuine  and  not  merely 
potential  opportunities,  it  would  appear  that,  if  we  could  isolate  this 
aspect  of  the  total,  we  should  have  the  best  indication  of  the  effect  of 
"schooling"  per  se.  This  would  be  the  angle  of  approach,  for  ex- 
ample, to  the  problem  as  to  whether  mere  presence  in  school  beyond 
the  age  of  fourteen  tends  to  be  a  deterrent  of  delinquency — a  conten- 
tion which  may  be  urged  entirely  without  reference  to  the  question 
as  to  whether  there  is  any  important  gain  in  educational  attainments 
during  these  years.  Any  measure  orf  educational  achievement  is  com- 
plicated by  the  fact  that  achievement  is  to  a  marked  degree  a  com- 
posite result  of  educational  opportunity  and  the  further  factor  of  in- 
nate mental  capacity.  Accordingly,  in  measuring  an  individual's  at- 
tainments, we  may  be  measuring  his  mental  capacity  more  than  we  are 
measuring  the  effect  of  general  school  training  or  the  lack  of  it.  In 
this  chapter,  therefore,  we  are  quite  certain  to  anticipate  to  some  ex- 
tent the  discussion  of  the  mental  capacities  of  the  women  under  con- 
sideration. 

As  we  shall  see,  it  will  be  impossible  to  distinguish  satisfactorily 
between  measures  of  opportunity  and  measures  of  attainment,  and 
equally  impossible  to  eliminate  from  either  of  these  measures  the 
effects  of  differences  in  mental  capacity,  in  personality,  and  in  emo- 
tional trends.  We  can,  however,  make  a  rough  distinction  on  the 
basis  of  certain  obvious  implications  of  the  data  at  hand. 

Meaning  by  "opportunity"  the  amount  and  kind  of  schooling  to 
which  one  was  actually  "exposed,"  and  not  simply  the  chance  for  such 
schooling,  we  should  naturally  consider  under  this  head  such  facts 
as  the  kind  of  school  attended,  the  regularity  of  attendance,  the  age 
at  leaving  school,  and  the  total  number  of  years  in  school.  Only  the 
first  of  the  above  factors,  however, — kind  of  school  attended — is  in 
any  thorough-going  way  independent  of  the  characteristics  of  the  per- 
son concerned.  We  should  expect  that  the  other  three  factors  would 
be  influenced  by  differences  in  mentality  and  in  such  traits  as  ambi- 


EDUCATIONAL  BACKGROUND  251 

tion,  energy,  and  alertness,  though  prol^ahly  not  to  the  same  degree  that 
one's  attainments  are  affected. 

The  best  measure  of  school  attainment  for  our  purposes  appears 
to  be  the  school  grade  completed.  Though  comparisons  with  averages 
of  the  general  community  are  out  of  the  question,  we  can  compare 
our  data  with  the  age-grade  requirements  set  up  by  various  school 
systems,  taking  into  account  the  age  of  leaving  school  as  the  age  which 
should  determine  the  grade  in  the  case  of  the  delinquent  women.  We 
can  also  interpret  the  grade  attainment  with  reference  to  the  number 
of  years  actually  spent  in  school,  assuming  that  a  year  in  school  should 
net  one  grade  completed. 

Even  without  reference  to  these  determining  factors  of  age  at 
leaving  school,  or  of  number  of  years  in  school,  the  grade  attained 
has  some  descriptive  value  as  an  absolute  measure  of  school  accom- 
plishment. In  a  general  way,  at  least,  the  difference  between  having 
reached  third  grade,  eighth  grade,  high  school  or  college  is  significant 
of  a  difference  in  degree  of  academic  education,  entirely  apart  from 
the  question  as  to  whether  the  possibility  of  attaining  one  or  another 
of  these  may  not  have  been  determined  by  the  degree  of  mentality. 

A  still  further  means  of  measuring  educational  accomplishment  is 
through  a  determination  of  the  amount  of  the  educational  equipment 
which  one  has  retained  from  her  school  experience.  For  this  pur- 
pose we  have  made  use  of  several  varieties  of  educational  tests  which 
have  recently  been  developed.  The  type  of  information  furnished 
by  these  differs  in  two  important  ways  from  that  afforded  by  school 
grade  as  an  index  of  educational  achievement.  In  the  first  place,  it 
is  more  objective,  since  it  is  in  no  sense  dependent  on  the  subject's 
own  statement  of  her  attainment,  as  is  the  school  grade  for  a  large 
number  of  our  cases  where  verification  has  proved  impossible.  In 
the  second  place,  it  affords  an  insight  into  the  present  educational 
working  equipment  of  the  individual,  which  may  not  be  indicated 
adequately  by  the  statement  concerning  the  grade  reached  in  school. 
Either  of  two  influences  may  have  been  operative,  tending  in  quite 
different  directions.  That  is,  the  subject  may  have  either  dropped 
from  the  degree  of  ability  represented  by  her  last  school  grade,  be- 
cause of  entire  absence  of  practice,  or  she  may  have  proceeded  to  reach 
a  much  higher  level  of  accomplishment  by  virtue  of  her  own  initiative 
and  ability  stimulated  by  special  demands  of  her  environment.  Which- 
ever alteration  occurs,  the  measure  of  present  attainment  is  of  con- 
siderable interest  since  it  is  the  present  individual  that  we  are  con- 


252      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

cerned  with,  at  least  in  so  far  as  we  are  planning  for  her  institutional 
treatment  or  her  later  adjustments. 

It  is  important,  however,  to  recognize  that  the  present  status  of 
educational  attainments  is  likely  to  be  even  more  closely  associated 
with  mental  capacity  than  is  the  grade  actually  reached  in  school. 
The  latter  is  subject  to  the  various  artificial  factors  operative  to  move 
all  children  through  the  schools  at  the  same  pace,  provided  differ- 
ences in  ability  be  not  too  striking.  The  amount  retained  from  the 
school  training  and,  still  more,  the  additional  amount  built  upon  this 
should  tend  to  differentiate  more  exactly  the  bright  individual  from 
the  dull.  In  so  far  as  this  is  true  we  are  obviously  measuring  men- 
tality by  these  educational  tests,  quite  as  much  as  we  are  measuring 
educational  factors  per  se. 

VERIFICATION  OF  SCHOOL  RECORD 

The  general  process  of  verification  of  records  was  explained  in 
Chapter  V.  The  most  satisfactory  means  of  verifying  school  records 
was  by  writing  to  the  school  and  obtaining  the  individual's  record  card. 
To  accomplish  this  necessitated,  in  the  first  place,  having  precise  in- 
formation regarding  the  school.  It  was  not  enough  to  know,  for  ex- 
ample, that  the  woman  went  to  school  in  the  Bronx  or  on  the  East 
Side,  New  York.  The  number  and  location  of  the  school  must  also 
be  obtained.  In  many  cases,  a  woman  was  inaccurate  in  recalling  these 
details,  either  purposely  or  because  she  had  not  thought  of  her  school 
for  many  years.  Accordingly  it  frequently  required  repeated  efforts  to 
obtain  the  desired  information.  In  the  second  place,  it  was  essential 
that  the  school  in  question  should  have  the  facts.  In  many  smaller 
towns  and  country  places  there  is  no  record-keeping  system.  Unless, 
then,  the  investigator  could  find  some  teacher  who  had  known  the 
woman  when  she  was  in  school  there  was  no  way  of  verifying  her 
statement.  Even  in  New  York  City  there  was  no  systematic  record- 
keeping until  1909.  Accordingly,  the  record  cards  were  usually  in- 
complete for  the  earlier  school  years  of  our  cases.  With  the  women 
who  had  had  their  schooling  in  foreign  countries  there  was  practically 
no  possibility  of  verification  except  through  the  statements  of  relatives. 

With  these  conditions  in  mind,  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  veri- 
fication was  obtained  for  only  about  half  of  our  total  group.  The 
wide  differences  in  degree  of  verification  of  the  various  institutional 
groups  may  be  indicated  by  the  following  figures  showing  percentages 
of  verification : 


EDUCATIONAL  BACKGROUND  253 

Grade   Finished :    Percentage  of   Records   Verified 

Bedford     Auburn     Magdalen     Penitentiary     Workhouse     Probation    Total 

n  38  72  27  14  42  46 

It  is  evident  that  a  particularly  high  degree  of  reliability  attaches  to 
the  figures  on  Bedford  and  the  Magdalen  and  that,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  Workhouse  figures  amount  to  little  more  than  the  women's  own 
unverified  statements. 

With  a  view  to  determining  what  difference,  if  any,  was  likely  to 
exist  between  verified  data  and  data  based  solely  on  the  women's  own 
statements,  we  computed  the  correlation  of  verified  with  unverified 
data  on  school  grade  for  207  cases  and  found  the  coefficient  to  be  .85. 
The  mean  grade  based  on  verified  records  was  found  to  be  4.6,  whereas 
the  mean  as  given  by  the  women's  statements  alone  is  5.3.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  the  tendency  is  toward  exaggeration,  toward  making  a  better 
impression.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  above  figures  are  neces- 
sarily based  simply  on  comparison  of  verified  data  with  those  original 
statements  on  which  additional  infonnation  zvas  later  obtained.  Ob- 
viously, we  can  not  compare  the  original  statements  with  verified  rec- 
ords where  the  latter  were  never  obtained.  It  is,  therefore,  impossible 
to  state  whether  the  tendency  to  exaggerate  holds  to  the  same  degree  for 
the  whole  group.  It  might  be  assumed  that  those  statements  on  the 
basis  of  which  it  was  impossible  ever  to  obtain  a  verified  record  would 
have  shown  an  even  greater  discrepancy  from  the  actual  facts.  An- 
other factor,  however,  enters  in  since  an  appreciable  portion  of  the 
unverifiable  statements  were  those  reporting  little  or  no  schooling, 
especially  as  given  by  the  foreign  group.  To  take  this  factor  into  ac- 
count, we  have  compared  the  means,  based  on  the  original  statements 
of  all  cases  on  whom  we  had  any  records,  with  the  means,  based  on 
verified  data  of  all  cases  on  whom  we  had  verified  records,  with  the 
following  results : 

Mean   School  Grade  Based  on 
Women's    Statements  Verified    Records 

4.88  ±  .135  4.63  ±  .178 

(437  cases)  (211  cases) 

It  is  apparent,  therefore,  that  the  mean  school  grade  as  obtained  from 
the  women's  statements  alone  is  lower  when  we  consider  the  entire 
group  than  when  we  consider  that  portion  of  the  group  whose  records 
it  was  possible  to  verify  (4.9  as  against  5.3).  In  other  words,  the 
mean  is  actually  lowered,  as  we  assumed  it  might  be,  by  the  addition 
of  the  cases   whose  records  were  unverifiable.     Even  so,  the  mean 


254     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

based  on  women's  statements  alone  is  slightly  higher  than  the  mean 
based  on  verified  records  (4.9  as  against  4.6). 

By  combining  the  verified  data  for  all  cases  on  whom  this  was 
available  with  the  data  based  on  original  statements  for  the  remainder 
of  the  group,  we  have  the  best  available  information  on  schooling  for 
our  group  as  a  whole.  This  is  the  type  of  data  used,  therefore, 
throughout  this  chapter  except  in  the  few  instances  where  we  have 
confined  the  discussion  to  the  verified  data.  From  Table  87  we  find 
that  the  mean  grade  based  on  the  best  available  records  for  447  cases 
is  4.58±:.127,  which  is  practically  identical  with  the  mean  given  by 
verified  records  alone  on  the  211  cases  (4.63 ±.178).  If  we  may  as- 
sume that  there  was  some  degree  of  exaggeration  in  the  additional 
236  records  which  were  based  only  on  women's  statements,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  the  true  mean  for  the  group  would  be  slightly  lower  still. 
In  other  words,  our  data  may  be  interpreted  as  probably  giving,  in 
all  cases,  a  slightly  higher  mean  value  for  school  grade  than  the  facts 
would  warrant.  On  the  other  hand,  they  are  lower  by  a  slight  but 
appreciable  degree  than  data  based  on  the  women's  statements  alone. 
The  latter  point  should  be  borne  in  mind  when  our  data  are  compared 
with  other  data  where  there  has  been  no  verification. 

EDUCATIONAL  OPPORTUNITIES 

(a)  Kind  of  School  Attended 

Our  first  consideration  under  the  head  of  educational  opportuni- 
ties is  that  of  kind  of  school  attended.  (See  Table  80.)  While  the 
various  types  of  school  doubtless  represent,  to  some  extent,  differences 
in  kind  of  opportunity,  we  have  not  attempted  to  evaluate  these  differ- 
ences. The  largest  percentage  in  each  group  have  had  public  school 
education.  This  is  to  be  expected,  since  by  far  the  largest  portion 
of  the  population  has  been  trained  in  the  public  schools.  Bedford  has 
the  largest  percentage  of  public  school  cases  and  Auburn  the  smallest, 
the  other  groups  showing  percentages  almost  identical  with  one  an- 
other. The  per  cents  from  the  parochial  schools  vary  from  2.2  per 
cent  in  the  Penitentiary  to  16.2  per  cent  in  Auburn.  We  see  no  ex- 
planation for  so  marked  a  variation  of, these  two  extremes,  since 
both  institutions  are  necessarily  non-sectarian,  both  receive  relatively 
older  cases  for  the  most  part,  and,  moreover,  in  the  two  institutions 
the  range  of  offenses  is  fairly  similar.  There  is  still  more  striking 
variation    among    the    institutions    regarding    numbers    educated    en- 


EDUCATIONAL  BACKGROUND 


255 


tirely  in  foreign  schools,  Bedford  having  much  the  lowest  per  cent 
— 3.1 — and  Auburn  the  largest — 33.8.  This  difference  appears  mainly 
explicable  in  terms  of  the  relative  numbers  of  foreign  cases  in  the 
various  groups.  (See  Chapter  VHI.)  The  data  concerning  foreign 
schools  are  of  significance  as  showing  that  an  appreciable  number  of 
women,  in  all  groups  except  Bedford,  have  had  all  their  schooling 
under  markedly  different  social  circumstances  from  those  of  the  school 
systems  of  this  country.  Moreover,  in  the  cases  where  attendance  in 
foreign  schools  is  reported,  it  is  particularly  likely  to  have  been 
so  brief  and  interrupted  as  to  amount  to  little.  The  footnote  to  the 
table  shows  the  numbers  who  have  never  attended  school.  It  is  no- 
ticeable that  the  institutions  having  the  younger  women  have  the  few-  • 
est  of  such  cases — Probation  none,  Magdalen  3,  Bedford  4 — indicating 
that,  in  this  section  of  the  country  at  least,  complete  absence  of  school 
training  is  not  likely  to  be  an  important  matter  in  the  future. 

TABLE  80 

KIND  OF  SCHOOL  ATTENDED* 
Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Kind  of  School 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

Schools  in  U.  S 

7.2 

6.2 

2.0 

77.3 

3.1 

4.1 

1.5 
16.2 

47^1 

33.8 

1.5 

5.8 
4.3 

63^8 
26.1 

2.2 

2.2 

2.2 

64.0 

27.0 

2.2 

3.3 

8.7 

4.3 

62.0 

21.7 

3.5 
11.8 

3.5 
62.4 

10.6 

8.2 

Orphanage  or  Home 

Parochial 

4.0 
8.0 

Private 

2.2 

Public 

63.6 

Schools  in  Foreign  Countries 
only 

19.4 

Schools  in  Foreign  Countries 
and  Public  Schools  in  U.  S. 

2.8 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

97 

68 

69 

89 

92 

85 

500 

*The  following  numbers  in  the  various  groups  never  attended  school:    Bedford,  4;  Auburn,  12; 
Magdalen,  3;  Penitentiary,  15;  Workhouse,  7;  Total,  41. 

(b)  Regularity  of  Attendance 

Of  importance  also  in  estimating  the  influence  of  schooling  is  in- 
formation concerning  regularity  of  attendance.     Such  information  is 


256     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

peculiarly  difificult  to  secure  in  the  case  of  these  older  women,  many 
of  whom  have  only  the  vaguest  of  recollections  as  to  their  behavior 
with  reference  to  the  school  situation.  However,  we  have  summa- 
rized in  Table  81  the  information  available  through  school  reports  or 
parents'  statements  on  this  point.  It  is  needless  to  point  out  that 
standards  of  judgment  are  far  from  uniform  and  that,  accordingly,  no 
careful  comparisons  can  be  made.  We  note  that  in  each  institutional 
group  the  largest  percentage  are  described  as  having  been  "fair"  in 
attendance,  though  a  goodly  number  are  referred  to  as  "poor."  The 
groups  vary  considerably  in  the  per  cents  described  as  "very  poor" 
but  in  general  these  numbers  are  low.  Much  lower  still  are  the  per 
cents  to  whom  a  record  of  "very  good"  attendance  is  attributed.  It 
is  of  interest  to  note  that  the  group  is  not  so  predominantly  charac- 
terized by  very  poor  school  attendance  as  we  might  have  anticipated. 
How  they  compare  in  this  respect  with  an  average  group  of  adults 
we  have  no  means  of  saying. 

TABLE  81 

ATTENDANCE  IN  SCHOOL 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institution.^.l  Groups 

Attendance 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

Very  poor 

Poor 

Fair 

Very  good 

14.4 

29.9 

52.6 

3.1 

13.8 
32.3 
53.8 

3.1 

23.1 

69.2 

4.6 

1.3 
24.1 

72.2 
2.5 

7.0 
15.1 

77.9 

4.9 

28.4 
66.7 

7.6 

25.3 

65.4 

1.7 

Total .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

97 

65 

65 

79 

86 

81 

473 

(c)  Age  at  Leaving  School 

We  have  indicated  that  both  age  at  leaving  school  and  number  of 
years  in  school  may  be  considered  indices  of  amount  of  school  oppor- 
tunity. For  comparisons  of  homogeneous  communities,  with  definite 
and   well-enforced   standards    regarding   age    at   entering   school    and 


EDUCATIONAL  BACKGROUND  257 

without  influx  of  large  numbers  of  children — especially  foreign  cases 
— who  enter  school  late,  the  two  measures  may  be  used  fairly  inter- 
changeably as  measures  of  school  contacts.  The  child  who  leaves 
school  at  fourteen  years  may  ipso  facto  be  thought  of  as  having  had 
less  schooling  than  the  one  who  leaves  at  sixteen,  and  more  than  the 
one  who  leaves  at  twelve.  Where,  however,  the  stationary  conditions 
suggested  above  have  not  existed  in  a  community  the  age  of  leaving 
school  becomes  a  far  more  ambiguous  measure  of  school  opportunity 
than  the  figure  which  gives  the  actual  time  spent  in  school. 

Nevertheless  data  on  the  age  of  leaving  school  can  not  be  neg- 
lected, in  the  light  of  the  importance  attached  to  this  factor  in  con- 
nection with  the  problems  of  compulsory  education  laws  and  of 
retardation.  As  a  result  of  the  interest  in  these  directions  during 
recent  years  we  have  before  us  numerous  statements  as  to  what  should 
be  the  minimal  standards  of  a  modern  community.  These  are  higher 
than  the  actual  records  of  even  the  more  advanced  communities,  for  the 
most  part,  and  so  can  not  be  used  as  a  means  of  comparing  the  de- 
lincjuent  group  with  the  general  population. 

In  the  development  of  compulsory  education  and  child  labor  laws 
there  has  been  almost  universal  acceptance  of  the  view  that  the  age 
of  fourteen  is  the  lowest  age  at  which  dropping  out  of  school  should  be 
tolerated.  By  most  of  those  who  deal  directly  with  children  leaving 
school  to  go  to  work  this  is  considered  too  low  a  standard.  We  hear 
of  the  "wasted  years"  from  fourteen  to  sixteen.  In  certain  states  the 
minimum  age  for  leaving  has  been  moved  on  to  fifteen  or  sixteen, 
either  absolutely  or  with  some  accompanying  grade  requirement.  Thus 
in  New  York  State,  which  concerns  us  most'  closely,  the  Compulsory 
Educational  Law  has  required,  since  1917,  that  in  order  to  leave  at 
fourteen  years  of  age  a  child  must  have  completed  eighth  grade ;  in 
order  to  leave  at  fifteen  he  must  have  completed  sixth  grade;  if  he 
has  not  completed  sixth  grade  he  may  not  leave  school  until  he  is  six- 
teen. 

(1)  Data  on  Institutional  Groups  and  on  Total. — Table  82  shows 
the  percentages  leaving  school  at  various  ages,  for  the  separate  insti- 
tutional groups  and  for  the  total.  Women  who  never  attended  school 
are  not  included  in  this  table,  since  it  is  obviously  impossible  to  state 
their  age  at  leaving  school.  The  percentages  of  cases  who  never  at- 
tended school  may  be  obtained  from  Table  84.  The  age  of  leaving 
school  as  given  is  understood  to  be  the  nearest  age.  Eor  example,  any 
age  falling  between  nine  and  a  half  and  ten  and  a  half  is  given  as  ten. 


258     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

This  custom  has  been  followed  at  least  where  the  age  has  been  figured 
precisely  from  records.  In  cases  where  verbal  statement  has  been 
relied  upon,  the  informant  may  be  assumed  to  have  performed  a 
rougher  process  of  the  same  sort  in  turning  the  age  into  round  num- 
bers. In  comparing  the  groups  it  is  well  to  remember  the  discrepancies 
in  chronological  age  between  the  Bedford,  Magdalen  and  Probation 
groups  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Auburn,  Penitentiary  and  Workhouse 
groups  on  the  other.  In  each  of  the  latter  three  there  are  considerable 
numbers  of  women  who  had  their  schooling  at  a  time  when  com- 
pulsory education  requirements  concerning  age  at  leaving  school  were 
less  rigid  than  at  present.  (For  the  range  of  ages  of  the  various 
groups  see  Table  31.) 


TABLE  82* 

AGE  AT  LEAVING  SCHOOL 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Age  at 

Institutional  Groups 

Leaving 
School 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

7 

'2.1 
7.3 

7.3 

27.1 

29.2 

20.8 

2.1 

2.1 

1.0 

3.1 

'3^1 

9.4 

7.8 

10.9 

18.8 

20.3 

10.9 

7.8 

4.7 

1.6 

1.6 

2.9 
2.9 

4.4 
7.3 
11.6 
30.4 
24.6 
13.0 

'i'.5 

1.2 
3.7 
3.7 

8.7 
18.5 
25.9 
16.1 
11.1 

6.2 

'l!2 

2.4 

3.5 

17.6 

11.8 

15.3 

28.2 

8.2 

5.9 

3.5 

1.2 

1.2 

'2^4 

2.4 

18.1 

35.0 

26.5 

7.2 

6.0 

2.4 

0.4 

8 . 

0  2 

9 

1.5 

10 

2.7 

11 

3.8 

12 

9.0 

13 

14.0 

14 

25.7 

15 

23.2 

16 

11.7 

17 

4.2 

18 

1.9 

19 

1.5 

20 

0.2 

Total .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

96 

64 

69 

81 

85 

83 

478 

Mean 

14.57 

±.158 

13.16 
+  .304 

13.83 

±.224 

14.14 
±.226 

14.17 
±.223 

14.39 
±.148 

14.10 

+  .088 

(J 

1.55 
+  .112 

2.43 
±.215 

1.87 
±.159 

2.04 
±.160 

2.05 

±.157 

1.35 
±.105 

1.93 

(ja 

+  .062 

♦Thia  table  includes  only  those  cases  who  have  attended  school  for  at  least  a  part  of  one  year. 


EDUCATIONAL  BACKGROUND  259 

Referring  to  the  table  it  may  be  noted  that  all  the  groups  show  an 
appreciable  number  who  left  school  before  they  were  fourteen ;  in 
other  words,  before  the  age  which  has  now  practically  universal  ac- 
ceptance in  this  country  as  the  minimum  age  at  which  dropping  out 
of  school  should  be  allowed.  For  the  total  group  the  percentage 
who  left  before  fourteen  is  31.6,  or  approximately  one-third  of  the 
group  who  actually  attended  school.  (Reference  to  Table  84  shows 
that  8.8  per  cent  of  the  total  group  had  never  attended  school  at  all.) 
For  the  three  groups  made  up  of  younger  women  the  percentages 
leaving  school  before  fourteen  are  as  follows:  Bedford  17.7  per  cent, 
Magdalen  30.6  per  cent,  and  Probation  22.9  per  cent.  The  relatively 
large  percentage  which  appears  for  the  Magdalen  is  shown  by  refer- 
ence to  the  data  to  be  due  mainly  to  the  large  percentage  of  foreign 
cases  in  this  group.  The  three  groups  which  contain  considerable 
numbers  of  older  women  give  the  following  percentages :  Auburn 
53.1,  Penitentiary  35.8,  Workhouse  36.5.  With  reference  to  the  very 
high  percentage  shown  for  Auburn  it  may  be  noted  that  there  are 
not  only  many  older  women  here  but  also  large  numbers  of  foreigners 
and  a  fair  number  of  women  from  isolated  country  districts  with  poor 
school  facilities.  Table  82  shows  the  mean  age  at  leaving  school  for 
the  total  group  to  be  14.1  years:  for  the  various  institutional  groups 
the  means  range  from  13.16  for  Auburn  to  14.57  years  for  Bedford. 

(2)  Comparative  Data  on  Non-Delinquent  Groups. — The  fore- 
going figures  are  suflficient  to  show  that  the  group  of  delinquent 
women  fail  to  meet  the  demands  of  present-day  public  opinion 
regarding  minimum  age  for  leaving  school.  Whether  they  fall 
below  the  actual  standards  of  the  adult  community,  as  represented 
by  the  facts  of  their  school  records,  we  have  no  means  of  knowing. 
The  establishing  of  the  facts  regarding  the  ages  of  elimination  of 
children  dropping  out  of  school  within  recent  periods  of  time  has  not 
proved  a  simple  problem.  With  the  merits  of  the  controversy  center- 
ing about  this  point  we  can  not  here  concern  ourselves.^  There  has 
been  agreement  as  to  the  fact  that  the  source  of  the  difficulty  lies  in  the 
lack  of  facts  regarding  individual  school  histories  and  the  necessity 
of  making  inferences  from  records  of  school  attendance,  after  cor- 
recting for  numerous  changing  conditions,  such  as  death-rate  and 
increase  of  population.     No  one  has  had  the  temerity,  apparently,  to 

'  See  especially  Thorndike,  E.  L.  "The  Elimination  of  Pupils  from  School." 
Bulletin  No.  4,  1907.  Whole  No.  379.  Department  of  the  Interior,  Bureau  of 
Education. 

Ayres,  L.  P.     "Laggards  in  Our  Schools,"  1909. 


260     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

attempt  to  estimate  the  ages  of  elimination  for  the  general  adult  popu- 
lation. Accordingly  our  only  available  comparison  is  that  with  the 
disputed  figures  representing  the  estimates  of  the  ages  of  elimination 
of  children  during  fairly  recent  periods.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
these  figures  vary  not  only  with  the  method  of  estimating,  but  with  the 
character  of  the  communities  considered  as  well. 

We  may  consider  the  following  figures  representative  of  estimates 
which  have  received  serious  consideration : 

(1)  Thorndike's  estimate  of  the  numbers  remaining  in  school  at 
the  various  ages,  for  every  hundred  children  who  were  in  school  at 
eight  years  of  age,  for  cities  of  25,000  or  over  in  1900.  (Op.  cit., 
p.  23.) 

Thorndike's  figures,  reversed  to  show  percentages  leaving  at  given 
ages,  rather  than  those  remaining,^  are  as  follows : 

Age  at  leaving  school    ..8    9     10     11     12     13     14     15     16     17     18  or  over. 
Percentages  leaving  0    0      2       1       9     18    23     17  13.5  7.9    8.6 

(2)  Ayres'  figures  on  decline  in  attendance,  sunmnarized  for  58 
cities,  assuming  a  stationary  population.  {Op.  cit.,  Table  11,  p.  28  and 
Table  12,  p.  30.)  ' 

Ayre's  figures  taken  from  Table  12  and  expressed  as  percentages 
leaving  school  at  given  ages  are  as  follows : 

Age  at  leaving  school 11     12     13     14     15     16  or  over 

Percentages    leaving 2    9.8    30    35     17      8 

(3)  Ayres'  figures  on  the  estimated  ages  of  elimination  for  Cleve- 
land, Ohio.^°  While  these  are  more  sectional  in  their  interest  than  are 
the  figures  from  the  other  groups,  they  have  an  advantage  for  that 
reason,  in  representing  a  definite  community  and  not  a  composite  of 
several.  It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that  it  represents  a  de- 
cidedly high-grade  standard,  as  compared  with  the  country  as  a  whole, 
since  the  data  are  recent  and  should  show  the  influence  of  the  present 
compulsory  education  law  of  Ohio,  which  requires  that  boys  remain 
in  school  until  fifteen  and  girls  until  sixteen.      (We  are  not  concerned 

"  In  reversing  the  figures,  offered  bj-  Thorndike  and  by  Ayres,  our  procedure 
has  been  as  follows:  If  a  given  per  cent,  are  indicated  as  remaining  in  school 
till  a  given  age,  it  is  assumed  that  the  difference  between  this  and  100  per  cent 
had  left  before  this  age.  For  example,  if  100  per  cent  were  retained  until  ten 
years  and  98  per  cent  until  eleven,  we  infer  that  2  per  cent  left  school  at  ten 
years,  i.  e.,  during  the  period  that  they  were  counted  ten  years  old." 

"  Ayres,  L.  P.  "Child  Accounting  in  the  Public  Schools."  Cleveland  Edu- 
cation Survey,  1915,  p.  28  and  p.  34,  table  4. 


EDUCATIONAL  BACKGROUND  261 

here  with  the  evidence  which  the  figures  offer  to  the  effect  that  the 
law  is  by  no  means  adequately  enforced.) 

The  figures  for  Cleveland  as  offered  by  Ayres  are  as  follows : 

Age  at  leaving  school   ....  12     13     14     15     16     17     18     19    20  or  over. 
Percentages  leaving 3     14    30    20     12      9      8      3       1 

The  three  estimates  presented  above  evidently  offer  very  different 
standards  of  comparison.  Thus  it  appears  by  Thorndike's  estimate 
that  30  per  cent  leave  school  before  fourteen,  by  Ayres'  estimate  for 
fifty-eight  cities  that  40  per  cent  leave  before  this  age,  and  by  Ayres' 
estimate  for  Cleveland  that  17  per  cent  drop  out  before  fourteen. 
In  the  light  of  the  discrepancies  and  disagreements  we  can  not  feel 
that  the  figures  are  very  convincing.  If  we  take  them  at  their  face 
value  our  delinquent  groups,  with  the  exception  of  iVuburn,  do  not 
show  up  badly,  except  in  comparison  with  the  Cleveland  data.  Even 
in  this  comparison  the  Bedford  group  appears  favorably,  with  only 
17.7  per  cent  leaving  before  fourteen. 

In  the  absence  of  more  conclusive  data  we  are  forced  to  consider 
he  relationship  of  the  delinquent  women  to  the  remainder  of  the 
population,  with  respect  to  age  at  leaving  school,  an  open  question. 
The  implications  of  the  data  before  us  are  to  the  effect  that,  while 
the  delinquent  women  have  not  met  the  standards  of  present  opinion 
regarding  the  minimal  age  for  leaving  school,  they  are  probably  not 
seriously  behind  the  population  as  a  whole  in  this  respect.  All  the 
arguments  which  apply  to  the  population  as  a  whole,  to  show  the 
harmfulness  and  loss  involved  in  a  high  rate  of  elimination  in  the 
earlier  years,  apply  also  to  the  delinquent  group.  But  in  the  absence 
of  a  clear  distinction  between  the  delinquent  women  and  the  general 
population  we  lack  evidence  to  show  that  an  early  age  of  leaving  school 
is  one  of  the  determinants  of  delinquency. 

(3)  Relationship  Between  Age  at  Leaving  School  and  Age  at  First 
Conviction. — Turning  from  comparison  of  the  delinquent  group  with 
other  groups  to  consideration  of  relationships  within  the  delinquent 
group,  special  interest  attaches  to  the  relationship  between  age  at  leav- 
ing school  and  age  of  first  conviction.  It  would  appear  quite  possible 
that  an  early  age  of  leaving  school  might  be  associated  with  an  early 
age  of  first  conviction.  This  comparison  is  shown  in  Table  83  for 
those  of  our  total  group  who  have  actually  attended  school  at  some 
time.  Inspection  of  the  table  fails  to  show  any  striking  relationship. 
The  coefficient  of  correlation  is  —.03 dr. 046,  indicative  of  entire  absence 


262     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

of  relationship.  The  correlation  ratios  were  computed  and  found  to  be 
.25zb.043  and  .21  ±.044  respectively.  Even  this  slight  evidence  of  rela- 
tionship can  not,  howeer,  be  taken  at  its  face  value  because  of  the  lack 
of  consistent  trend  in  the  lines  of  means,  at  least  in  case  of  the  ratio 
of  age  at  leaving  school  on  age  of  first  conviction.  In  the  case  of  the 
ratio  of  age  at  first  conviction  on  age  at  leaving  school,  reference  to 
the  means  given  in  the  extreme  right-hand  column  of  the  table  shows 
the  suggestion  of  a  curious  relationship,  to  the  efifect  that  those  who 
left  school  at  ages  not  far  from  the  average — especially  the  ages  from 
13  to  16 — tend  to  have  been  convicted  at  slightly  earlier  ages  than 
either  those  who  left  school  very  young  or  who  remained  in  school 
to  ages  considerably  above  the  average.  It  is  not  surprising  to  find 
the  tendency  toward  later  first  conviction  with  later  age  at  leaving 
school.  Aside  from  any  question  of  increased  advantage  to  the  in- 
dividual, accruing  from  longer  school  contacts,  there  is  a  tendency 
toward  setting  up  a  lower  limit  here.  That  is,  except  in  case  of  the 
early  juvenile  convictions,  a  conviction  is  very  likely  to  interrupt  and 
thereby  terminate  the  school  career.  Accordingly,  the  continuance  in 
school  beyond  the  age  of  sixteen  or  seventeen  years  is  likely  to  be 
somewhat  symptomatic  of  the  fact  that  such  interruption  has  not 
occurred.  Examination  of  the  table  suggests  the  operation  of  this 
tendency.  Reasons  for  the  delayed  age  of  first  conviction  of  those  who 
left  school  very  early  are  not  apparent  from  the  table.  Consideration 
of  the  facts  regarding  the  foreign  members  of  the  group  affords,  how- 
ever, a  clue.  It  has  been  shown  (see  pp.  196-197)  that  these  cases  had  a 
later  average  age  of  first  conviction  than  the  native-born.  It  is  also 
known  that  their  educational  opportunities  have  been  much  slighter 
(see  p.  265).  Reference  to  our  records  shows  that  the  foreign-born 
form  the  large  majority  of  the  group  who  left  school  earlier  than  thir- 
teen. This  factor,  therefore,  evidently  accounts  for  the  negative  trend 
in  the  lower  portion  of  the  curve.  In  view  of  the  slightness  of  the 
relationship  indicated  between  age  at  leaving  school  and  age  at  first 
conviction,  and  on  consideration  of  the  complication  of  the  situation 
by  other  factors,  it  is  apparent  that  we  can  offer  no  evidence  to  show 
that  age  at  leaving  school  has  operated,  either  positively  or  negatively, 
as  a  determinant  of  the  age  at  first  conviction. 

We  shall  defer  until  our  consideration  of  grade  attainments  the 
discussion  of  age  at  leaving  school  in  relation  to  grade,  which  involves 
the  problem  of  retardation. 


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263 


264     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DI:LINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


(d)  Number  of  Years  in  School 


(1)  Data  Oil  Total  Delinquent  Group  and  on  Institutional  Sub- 
Groups. — Table  84  presents  data  regarding  number  of  years  in  school 
by  institutional  groups,  the  distribution  of  which  are  shown  graphi- 
cally in  Chart  XV.  These  distributions  include,  in  all  cases,  those 
women  who  never  attended  school  as  well  as  those  who  were  in  school 
for  varying  periods. 

TABLE  84 

NUMBER  OF  YEARS  IN  SCHOOL 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Number 

Institutional  Groups 

of 
Years 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

0 

4.0 

2.0 

1.0 

3.0 

3.0 

5.1 

7.1 

16.2 

28.3 

15.2 

9.1 

2.0 

3.0 

1.0 

16.0 
5.3 

2.7 
5.3 
8.0 
4.0 
10.7 
26.7 
5.3 
5.3 
6.7 
2.7 
1.3 

4.2 
4.2 

1.4 
1.4 

2.8 

9.9 

11.3 

16.9 

25.4 

12.7 

4.2 

5.6 

17.6 

'4;4 

4.4. 

5.5 

3.3 

11.0 

13.2 

16.5 

11.0 

5.5 

4.4 

2.2 

1^1 

10.3 

3.5 

3.5 

2.3 

5.8 

6.9 

13.8 

12.6 

14.0 

13.8 

5.8 

3.5 

3.5 

'2.6 

2.6 

5.1 

5.1 

12.8 

25.6 

24.4 

11.5 

3.9 

6.4 

8.8 

1  

2.4 

2       

2.6 

3 

3.2 

4 

5.0 

5 

5.6 

6       

11.0 

7 

18.2 

8   

19.4 

9 

11.8 

10 

6.0 

11 

4.0 

12 

1.8 

13 

.2 

14 

.2 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

99 

75 

71 

91 

87 

78 

501 

Mean 

7.31 

±.267 

5.32 

+  .384 

6.79 
±.312 

5.95 

±.377 

6.26 

±.348 

7.23 

+  .223 

6.50 

(Tm 

+  .  136 

a 

2.65 
±.189 

3.33 

±.272 

2.63 
±.221 

3.60 

±.267 

3.25 

±.246 

1.97 

±.158 

3.052 

aa- 

+  .096 

All  groups  show  a  wide  range  of  years  spent  in  school.  In  the 
total  group  this  extends  from  no  years  to  fourteen  years.  The  dis- 
persion as  measured  by  the  standard  deviation  is  appreciably  higher  for 
the  three  groups  containing  older  women.     The  average  time  spent  in 


EDUCATIONAL  BACKGROUND 


265 


school  for  the  total  group  is  6.5  years.  The  three  groups  containing 
on  the  whole  younger  women  show  higher  average  periods  of  attend- 
ance than  do  the  other  three,  though  the  dividing  lines  are  not  sharp. 
Bedford  and  Probation  show  the  highest  average  time  spent  in  school 
(7.31  and  7 2Z  years  respectively)  and  Auburn  the  lowest  (5.32  years). 
The  factors  cited  as  explanatory  of  the  low  average  age  of  leaving 
school  of  the  Auburn  women  apply  also  here. 

The  numbers  who  have  never  been  to  school  vary  from  0  per  cent 
for  the  Probation  group  to  17.6  per  cent  for  the  Penitentiary  women. 
Of  the  total  group  8.8  per  cent  had  never  attended  school.  Again 
the  three  groups  of  younger  women  make  a  much  better  showing  than 
do  the  other  three. 

(2)  Data  on  Groups  Classified  by  Nativity  and  Color. — Com- 
parison by  nativity  and  color,  rendered  possible  by  Table  85,  shows 
that  the  foreign  bom  portion  of  the  group  contributes  by  far  the 
largest  number  of  those  very  deficient  in  school  opportunity  as  meas- 
ured by  number  of  years  in  school.  Practically  one-fourth  (24.5  per 
cent)  have  had  no  schooling,  and  the  mean  number  of  years  in  school 
is  only  4.92.  The  group  which  falls  next  with  respect  to  lack  of 
schooling,  the  native  colored,  is  separated  from  the  foreign  born  by 
a  wide  gap.  They  show  4.7  per  cent  with  no  schooling,  and  a  mean 
number  of  years  in  school  of  6.42.  When  these  two  elements — the 
foreign-born  and  the  negro — are  eliminated  from  the  total,  we  find 


Pef 

Cent 


TOTAL 


YEARS 

Chart  XV 

Number  of  Years   in  School 

Per  cent  distribution  by  institutional  groups. 


Per 

Cent 


BEDFORD 


I        I        I        I        I         I        I        I        I        I        I        I 

0  12  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14 


AUBURN 


Per 

Cent 


0  L 


Per 
Cent 


XVI  e 


YEARS 


MAGDALEN 


0  12  3  4  S  6  7  8  9  lU  11  12  13  14 


VEARS 

Chart   XV    (Continued) 

Number  of   Years   in   School 

Per  cent  distribution  by  institutional  groups. 

266 


Per 

Cent 


Per 

Cent 


PENITENTIARY 


XVI.E 


WORKHOUSE 


Per 
Cent 


PROBATION 


12         13 


012  3456  789  10  11 


14 
KVI-ft 


Chart  XV    (Continued) 

Number  of  Years  in  School 

Per  cent  distribution  by  institutional  groups. 

267 


268     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

the  native- white  making  a  far  more  satisfactory  showing.  Only  0.8 
per  cent  show  no  record  of  school  attendance,  and  the  mean  number 
of  years  in  school  is  7.47- — a  mean  which  is  almost  high  enough  to 
permit  of  an  average  record  of  graduation  from  elementary  school, 
assuming  normal  progress.  We  shall  see  however  that  the  record  falls 
decidedly  short  of  this  possibility. 

TABLE  85 

NUMBER  OF  YEARS  IN  SCHOOL 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  Classified  by  Nativity 

and  Color 


Nativity  and  Color 

Years  in  School 

Total 
Foreign  Born 

Total 
Native  Born 

Native 
White 

Native 
Colored 

Total 

0 

24.5 
5.2 
1.9 

5.8 
5.2 
6.5 
5.8 
14.8 
13.5 
8.4 
4.5 
1.9 
1.9 

1.7 

1.2 

2.9 

2.0 

4.9 

5.2 

13.3 

19.7 

22.0 

13.3 

6.6 

4.9 

1.7 

.3 

.3 

.8 

.4 

.8 

1.9 

4.2 

3.8 

14.2 

21.2 

25.0 

15.8 

5.8 

4.6 

1.2 

.4 

4.7 

3.5 

9.3 

2.3 

7.0 

9.3 

10.5 

15.1 

12.8 

5.8 

9.3 

5.8 

3.5 

*l'2 

8.8 

1 

2.4 

2 

2.6 

3 

3  2 

4 

5.0 

5 

5.6 

6 

11.0 

7 

18.2 

8 

19.4 

9 

11.8 

10 

6.0 

11 

4.0 

12 

1.8 

13 

.2 

14 

.2 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

155 

346 

260 

86 

501 

Mean 

4.92 
+  .294 

7.21 
+  .130 

7.47 
+  .125 

6.42 
±.351 

6.50 

<Tm 

+  .136 

(T 

3.66 

+  .208 

2.42 
±.092 

2.01 

±.088 

3.25 

±.248 

3.05 

(T<T 

+  .096 

(3)  Impossihility  of  Comparison  with  General  Population. — In 
spite  of  the  fact  that  we  attach  more  importance  to  figures  showing 
years  in  school  than  to  those  showing  age  at  leaving,  as  measures 
of  amount  of  schooling,  the  former  are  even  less  serviceable  than  the 
latter  for  purposes  of  comparison  with  other  groups.  Even  estimates 
are  lacking  on  this  point.     We  are  therefore  forced  to  refrain  from 


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270    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

any  attempt  to  compare  our  groups  with  the  general  population  with 
respect  to  this  factor.  We  suspect  that  the  general  population  would 
not  show  an  appreciahly  better  record  in  this  respect. 

Consideration  of  the  relationship  between  years  in  school  and 
grade  attainment  will  be  deferred  until  we  have  presented  the  data  with 
regard  to  grade  completed. 

(4)  Relationship  between  Years  in  School  and  Number  of  Convic- 
tions.— We  are,  however,  interested  to  know  whether  we  can  discover 
any  relationship  between  educational  opportunity  as  indicated  by  years 
in  school  and  extent  of  criminal  record  as  shown  by  the  number  of 
convictions.  Table  86  presents  the  data  on  this  relationship.  The 
coefficient  of  correlation  is  practically  zero.  The  ratio  of  number  of 
years  in  school  on  number  of  previous  convictions  (.11  ±.044)  would 
indicate  only  the  slightest  of  relationships  at  best.  The  ratio  of  number 
of  previous  convictions  on  years  in  school  is,  however,  large  enough 
(.31  ±  .041)  to  call  for  careful  inspection  of  the  table  to  discover 
whether  there  is  actually  an  observable  tendency  here.  Referring  to 
the  values  of  the  mean  number  of  convictions  for  various  periods  of 
school  attendance  shown  in  the  extreme  right-hand  column  of  the 
table,  we  note  such  oscillation  of  the  various  means  about  the  mean 
of  the  whole  group  that  it  is  impossible  to  discover  the  presence  of 
any  one  tendency,  other  than  an  apparent  trend  toward  a  lower  average 
number  of  convictions  for  those  in  the  highest  groups  for  length  of 
schooling. 

EDUCATIONAL  ATTAINMENTS 

(a)  Grade  Finished 

In  Tables  87  to  91  we  present  the  main  facts  regarding  grade 
attainment  for  the  groups,  classified  by  institution  and  by  nativity  and 
race.  In  considering  these  tables  it  is  important  to  note  that  our 
figures  refer  always  to  grade  finished.  We  have  thus  avoided  the 
necessity  of  stating  that  one  was  in  fifth  grade,  for  example,  merely 
because  she  had  finished  fourth,  when  possibly  she  had  not  returned 
the  following  year.  Our  usage,  however,  fails  to  take  complete 
account  of  the  facts,  since  in  the  reverse  case  we  still  refer  to  the 
woman  as  having  completed  only  fourth  grade,  even  though  she  may 
have  spent  part  of  the  year  in  fifth.  The  distinction  is  not  important 
and  should  be  borne  in  mind  merely  to  avoid  misinterpretation  in  com- 
parison of  our  data  with  other  figures  which  are  usually  expressed  as 
grade   reached.      For  this   comparison   an   additional  year   of   credit 


EDUCATIONAL  BACKGROUND 


271 


TABLE  87 

GRADE  FINISHED  IN  SCHOOL 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional   Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Grade  Finished 

Total 

Bed- 

Auburn 

Mag- 

Peni- 

Work- 

Proba- 

ford 

dalen 

tentiary 

house 

tion 

None* 

9.2 

25.0 

6.7 

15.1 

12.7 

11.4 

1 

4.1 

5.9 

1.7 

3:5 

2.7 

2 

12.2 

10.3 

■  6.7 

2.3 

11.1 

5.6 

8.1 

3 

19.4 

8.8 

3.3 

14.0 

7.9 

9.7 

11.4 

4 

14.3 

8.8 

23.3 

17.4 

14.3 

9.7 

14.5 

5 

15.3 

13,2 

18.3 

9.3 

11.1 

18.1 

14.1 

6 

10.2 

5.9 

18.3 

12.8 

7.9 

23.6 

13.0 

7 

2.0 

8.8 

8.3 

3.5 

22.2 

18.1 

9.6 

8 

11.2 

8.8 

10.0 

14.0 

12.7 

9.7 

11.2 

1st  Year  High  School 

1.0 

2.9 

1.7 

3.5 

1.4 

1.8 

2nd     "         "          "       

I-^A          "               "                 " 

1.2 

2.8 

.7 

4th      "         "          "       

I'o 

I'S 

1:7 

'3^5 

lA 

"1^6 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

98 

6^> 

60 

86 

63 

72 

447 

Mean 

4.07 

3.66 

4.93 

4.64 

4.64 

5.72 

4.58 

±247 

±367 

±.300 

±.328 

±.324 

±.233 

+  .127 

a 

2.44 

3.03 

2.32 

3.04 

2.57 

1.97 

2.68 

(Jo-                            

+  .174 

±.260 

±.212 

±.232 

±.229 

±.165 

+  090 

♦Includes  those  who  have  never  been  in  school  and  those  who  have  attended  but  never  finished 
first  grade. 


should  be  given  to  our  groups.  Thus,  for  example,  a  mean  grade 
finished  of  4.58  would  signify  a  mean  grade  reached  of  5.58. 

(1)  Data  on  lustitutional  Groups  and  on  Total. — Chart  XVI  pre- 
sents graphically  the  distributions  shown  in  Table  87.  Marked  differ- 
ences in  distribution  for  the  various  groups  appear,  which  it  would 
be  unprofitable  to  discuss  in  detail.  Numerous  factors  such  as  the 
percentage  of  foreign  cases,  the  range  of, age  of  the  group,  the  men- 
tality of  the  group  and  the  operation  of  the  compulsory  education  law, 
have  doubtless  operated  together  to  produce  certain  curious  irregu- 
larities in  form. 

The  relatively  high  percentages,  in  Auburn,  the  Penitentiary,  and 
the  Workhouse,  who  never  completed  even  the  first  grade  reflect 
primarily  the  situation  regarding  time  spent  in  school,  thus  becoming 


•272    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


mainly  measures  of  school  opportunity.  Such  cases  we  note  predomi- 
nate in  the  groups  having  the  largest  proportion  of  foreign  cases  and 
of  older  women. 

At  the  other  extreme  we  find  in  all  the  groups  an  extremely 
small  proportion  who  even  entered  high  school  and  none  who  entered 
college.  Occasionally  a  woman  claimed  to  have  been  a  college 
graduate  but  investigation  never  confirmed  her  statement  on  this 
point.  The  complete  absence  of  women  who  had  had  college  and 
professional  training  is  at  least  interesting  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
our  group  includes  all  types  of  offenders — those  guilty  of  such  crimes 
as  forgery,  swindling  and  homicide,  as  well  as  of  the  minor  social 
ofl^enses.  One  wishing  to  hold  a  brief  for  the  higher  education  of 
women  might  be  inclined  to  point  to  these  figures  with  some  satis- 
faction as  indicating  that  advanced  education  afforded  a  woman 
such  resources  in  the  way  of  training  and  personality  that  she  was 
less  subject  to  the  allurements  of  a  criminal  career  than  her  less 
educated  sister,  or  that,  at  the  very  least,  the  figures  should  be  in- 
terpreted as  showing  that  the  college  and  professional  training 
fails  to  attract  women  of  the  delinquent  or  criminal  "types."  A 
more  cynical  view  would  represent  the  absence  of  college  and  pro- 
fessional women  from  our  groups  as  indicative  of  nothing  more 
than  their  probable  greater  skill  in  escaping  detection  when  they 
have  committed  crimes  or  minor  offenses.     Obviously   we  lack  the 


Per 

Cent 


TOTAL 


GRADE 

Chart  XVI 

Grade  Finished 

Per  cent  distribution  by  institutional  groups. 


Per 

Cent 


Per 

Cent 


BEDFORD 


AUBURN 


LP — '  l_j 


^ — » 


oil              2              3              4              S              e  7  8ll  2  3  4 

<  * >  High  School 


MAGDALEN 

1 

,"'■ 

1 

1       1 

0      1 

1 

2              3 

4 

5              6 

7     '     s 

1              2 

3              4 

GRADE 

Chart  XVI    (Continued) 
Grade  Finished 
Per  cent  distribution  by  institutional  groups 
273 


Hijh  School 


Per 

Cent 


PENITENTIARY 


0  L 


VT 


«  7  8      11 


Per 

Cent 


WORKHOUSE 


4  5  6  7 


High  School  wy  p 


PROBATION 


y^ 


6  7  8 


High  School  XV  ^ 


GRADE 

Chart  XVI    (Continued) 
Grade  Finished 
Per  cent  distribution  by  institutional  groups. 
274 


EDUCATIONAL  BACKGROUND  275 

data    which    would   enable   us  to   pass    judgment   on   the   merits   of 
these  divergent  interpretations. 

In  so  far  as  comparison  of  institutional  groups  with  respect  to 
school  grade  is  attempted  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  reliability 
of  the  information  on  this  point  is  particularly  affected  by  the 
differences  in  completeness  of  verification  among  the  various  groups. 
We  have  seen  that  the  percentage  of  cases  on  whom  we  have  verified 
records  regarding  grade  varies  from  14  per  cent  for  the  Workhouse 
to  77  per  cent  for  Bedford,  and  that  the  tendency  of  the  women 
is,  as  one  would  expect,  to  better  the  record  in  their  own  accounts. 
With  this  qualification  in  mind  it  seems  unsafe  to  give  weight  to 
the  relatively  slight  differences  in  the  constants  for  these  groups 
as  shown  in  Table  87.  The  Workhouse  figures  should  undoubtedly 
be  taken  with  several  grains  of  salt.  The  relatively  high  rating  for 
the  Probation  group,  however,  would  seem  sufficient  to  indicate  a 
genuine  superiority  of  this  group.  On  the  other  hand,  there  seems  no 
reason  to  question  the  significance  of  the  low  figure  for  Auburn  as 
indicating  an  especially  poor  record  of  school  attainment. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  no  group  shows  a  record  of  an  average  at- 
tainment equal  to  completion  of  sixth  grade,  which  we  have  seen 
is  now  the  minimum  attainment  which  permits  a  child  to  leave  school 
before  sixteen  in  New  York  State.  The  average  attainment  for  the 
group  as  a  whole  is  4.6  grades. 

(2)  Data  on  Groups  Classified  by  Nativity  and  Color. — The  com- 
parison of  grade  distributions  for  the  different  nativity  and  color 
groups  has  more  reliability  than  the  foregoing  comparison  by  insti- 
tutional groups,  since  any  correction  for  lack  of  verification  would 
tend  to  exaggerate  rather  than  to  reduce  the  difference.  Referring 
to  the  means  for  these  groups — Table  88 — we  note  that  the  native 
born  have  a  decidedly  higher  average  than  the  foreign  born  and  that 
among  the  native  born  the  native  white  are  appreciably  higher  than 
the  colored.  Tables  89  to  91  show  that  we  are  justified  in  considering 
all  these  differences  valid.  Even  the  native  white  group,  however, 
shows  only  an  average  of  5.2  grades  completed. 

(3)  Relationship  of  Grade  to  Age  Distinctions. — We  have  seen  that 
for  both  age  at  leaving  school  and  number  of  years  in  school  there 
was  a  sharp  distinction  between  the  three  institutional  groups  having 
a  higher  average  age  and  the  three  having  a  lower  average,  in  favor  of 
the  latter.  We  should  expect  to  find  the  same  sort  of  thing  with  regard 
to  grade.    It  does  not  appear,  however,  with  any  degree  of  definiteness. 


276    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINOUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


TABLE  88 

GRADE  FINISHED 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  Classified  by  Nativity 

and  Color 


Iativitt  and  Color 

Grade  Finished 

Total 

Total 

Total 

Native 

Native 

Foreign  Born 

Native  Born 

White 

Colored 

None* 

34.2 

3.3 

2.4 

6.0 

11.4 

1 

3.4 

2.4 

2.0 

3.6 

2.7 

2 

4.3 

9.4 

8.1 

13.3 

8.1 

3 

8.5 

12.4. 

11.7 

14.5 

11.4 

4 

10  3 

16.1 

16.2 

15.7 

14.5 

5 

11.1 

15.2 

15.4 

14.5 

14.1 

6 

6.8 

15.2 

16.2 

12.0 

13.0 

7 

5  1 

11.2 

10.5 

13.3 

9.6 

8 

10.3 
3.4 

11.5 
1.2 

13.8 
.8 

4.8 
2.4 

11.2 

1st  Year  High  School . 

1.8 

2nd     "         "         "     .. 

.9 

1.2 

.7 

4th     "         "         "     .. 

2.6 

1.2 

1.6 

1.6 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

117 

330 

247 

83 

447 

Mean 

3.55 

4.95 

5.15 

4.34 

4.58 

Cm 

+  .304 

±.128 

±.147 

±.247 

±.127 

3.29 

2.32 

2.31 

2.25 

2.68 

(J(T 

+  .215 

+  .090 

±.104 

±.174 

±.090 

♦Includes  those  who  have  never  been  in  school  and  those  who  have  attended  but  never  finished 
first  grade. 

Bedford,  in  fact,  shows  a  lower  mean  than  the  Penitentiary  and  the 
Workhouse,  and  the  latter  institutions  are  not  greatly  inferior  to  the 
Magdalen.  Because  of  the  differences  in  the  extent  of  verification, 
as  we  have  seen,  these  distinctions  can  not  be  stressed  as  important. 
We  have,  therefore,  examined  the  relationship  between  grade  and 
age  directly.  The  correlation  coefficient  for  age  with  grade  for  449 
cases  was  found  to  be  —  .124  dz  .046,  indicating  a  slight  tendency 
toward  lower  school  grade  with  increasing  age.  In  order  to  discover 
whether  there  is  a  clear-cut  tendency  for  the  older  women,  for 
example,  the  women  over  35,  to  have  a  poorer  record  of  school  at- 
tainment than  the  younger  women,  we  have  obtained  the  means  for 
grade  completed  for  the  women  over  35  and  for  the  women  under 
35.  Since  the  amount  of  verification  is  slight  in  the  case  of  the 
older  women,  we  have  used  the  data  based  on  the  women's  state- 


EDUCATIONAL  BACKGROUND 


277 


TABLE  89 

TOTAL  FOREIGN  BORN  AND  TOTAL  NATIVE  BORN 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and   Standard  Deviations  of  the   Grade 

Finished  for  Total  Foreign  Bom  and  Total  Native  Bom 

of  Total  Group 


Total 
Foreign  Born 

Total 
Native  Born 

Difference 

d 
(Td 

Chances  that  real 

difference  doe.s 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

3.55 

±.304 

4.95 

±  .  128 

-1.40 

4.24 

89,286 

a 

(Ta 

3.29 
±.215 

2.32 
±.090 

.97 

4.16 

62,893 

Cases 

117 

330 

ments  entirely  for  this  comparison.  The  mean  grade  for  the  women 
over  35  was  found  to  be  5.11  ±  .409  and  that  for  the  women  under 
35.  6.04  ±:  .137.  There  is,  therefore,  an  obvious  difference,  amount- 
ing ahnost  to  one  grade,  between  the  averages  for  the  older  and  the 
younger  women.  We  are  justified  in  assuming  the  vahdity  of  this 
difference  since  it  amounts  to  more  than  twice  the  standard  deviation 
of  the  difference. 

Since    so    genuine   a   difference   appears    to    exist   between   these 
groups    distinguished    in    point    of    age,    it   has    seemed    desirable   to 


TABLE  90 

NATIVE  WHITE  AND  NATIVE  COLORED 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and   Standard  Deviations  of  the   Grade 

Finished  for  Native  White  and  Native  Colored  of 

Total  Group 


Native 
White 

Native 
Colored 

Difference 

d 
(Td 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

(Tm 

5.15 
±.147 

4.34 

±.247 

.81 

2.83 

435 

(J 

(T(T 

2.31 
±.104 

2.25 
±.174 

.06 

.30 

3 

Cases 

247 

83 

278     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


TABLE  91 

TOTAL  FOREIGN  BORN  AND  NATIVE  WHITE 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  the   Grade 

Finished  for  Total  Foreign  Bom  and  Native  White  of 

Total  Group 


Total 
Foreign  Born 

Native 
White 

Difference 

d 
Cd 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

3.55 
±.304 

5.15 

±.147 

-1.60 

4.75 

8 

Cm 

a 

3.29 
±.215 

2.31 
±.104 

.98 

4.11 

50  505 

(Tff 

Cases 

117 

247 

compute  the  constants  for  the  group  under  35  for  use  in  comparison 
with  any  outside  groups  whose  range  of  ages  does  not  extend  beyond 
this  age.  We  have  in  mind,  for  example,  especially  the  data  which 
may  be  forthcoming  regarding  army  recruits  whose  ages  are  predomi- 
nantly lower  than  this.  The  figures  for  the  delinquent  women  under 
35  years  of  age  are  as  follows : 


Grade  Finished 
Based  on  Women's  Statements 
Mean  6.04  ±  .137 

a  2.60  ±  .097 

Number  of  Cases  361 


Verified  Data 
5.59  ±  .174 
3.56  ±  .289 
197 


(4)  Rclafiouship  of  Grade  to  Age  at  Leaving  School. — In  view 
of  the  dearth  of  information  regarding  the  educational  status  of  the 
general  adult  population,  it  is  particularly  important  to  search  our  own 
data  for  internal  evidences  as  to  the  normality  of  school  progress. 
Two  such  lines  of  evidence  are  of  particular  interest,  namely,  the  com- 
parison of  grade  attainment  with  age  at  leaving  school  and  with  the 
number  of  years  in  school. 

The  former  of  the.se  comparisons  is  closely  related  to  the  age- 
grade  tables  with  which  we  have  become  so  familiar  in  all  recent 
discussions  of  retardation.  Since,  however,  our  women  are  all  past 
the  school  period,  it  becomes  necessary  to  substitute  age  at  leaving 
school  for  actual  age.  Eacii  school  report  in  which  such  figures  are 
discussed  sets  up  some  standard  to  be  met  and  offers  as  statistics 
of  retardation  the  percentages  which  fall  behind  this  standard.    That 


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280     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

this  standard  rej^rescnts  an  ideal,  rather  than  an  average,  even  for 
children  who  have  all  the  advantages  of  present  school  opportunities, 
is  evident  from  the  fact  that  the  proportion  of  "over-age"  pupils 
is  practically  always  considerahly  larger  than  the  proportion  of  ad- 
vanced, and  that  most  school  systems  are  struggling  with  a  large 
prohlem  of  retardation. 

We  shall  not  attempt  to  consider  the  various  age-grade  stand- 
ards which  have  been  proposed,  but  shall  consider  especially  in- 
teresting for  our  purposes  the  present  New  York  City  standards,  the 
so-called  "up-to-15"  standard  by  which  it  is  expected  that  a  pupil 
will  have  graduated  from  elementary  school  by  the  time  he  is  fifteen. 
The  requirements  as  stated  for  each  grade  are  as  follows : " 


Grade   Completed 

1 

2 

3 

4                5 

6 

7 

Age   7-8 

8-9 

9-10 

10-11         11-12 

12-13 

13-14 

14-15 

This  means  that  one  should  have  completed  the  first  grade  before 
his  eighth  birthday,  the  second  grade  before  his  ninth,  etc. 

Table  92  shows  the  age-grade  relationships  for  our  group.  We 
have  enclosed  within  heavy  lines  the  spaces  within  which  would  fall 
those  making  normal  progress  in  approximate  accordance  with  the 
New  York  requirements.^^  Numbers  in  the  columns  above  these 
lines  represent  "retarded"  cases  and  numbers  below  represent  "ad- 
vanced." The  enormous  preponderance  of  retarded  cases  is  evi- 
dent to  the  most  cursory  inspection. 

The  correlation  betw^een  grade  finished  and  age  at  leaving  school 
is  found  to  be  .44  ±  .043.  While  this  is  sufBcient  to  show  that  the 
grade  attainment  is  related  to  the  age  at  which  one  leaves  school, 
it  is  far  too  low  to  suggest  that  the  latter  factor  is  mainly  responsible 
for  the  amount  of  school  progress. 

(5)  Relationship  of  Grade  to  Number  of  Years  in  School. — Of 
greater  significance  than  the  foregoing  comparison,  for  determining 
whether  normal  progress  has  or  has  not  been  made,  is  a  comparison 
of  grade  and  number  of  years  that  the  individual  has  actuallv  been 
in  school.     Such  a  comparison  is  oiTered  in  Table  93.     For  this  com- 

"  "Eighteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  City  Superintendent  of  Schools  to  the 
Board  of  Education  of  the  City  of  New  York  for  the  Year  Ending  July,  1916." 
Appendix  F,  pp.  175  fif. 

"  A  slight  deviation,  amounting  to  a  half  year's  greater  leniency,  was  made 
hecause  of  the  fact  that  our  round  numbers  made  it  impossible  to  follow  the 
New  York  standards  exactly.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  in  our  figures  for 
age,  7  equals  6K>  to  7j/2,8  equals  7^  to  8^^,  etc. 


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282    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

parison  we  have  included  only  women  now  35  years  of  age  or  less 
in  order  to  reduce,  to  some  extent,  the  heterogeneity  of  the  group. 
The  correlation  coefficient  of  .62  ±  .033  shows  that  there  is  an  un- 
questionable relationship  between  school  attainment,  as  indicated  by 
grade  completed,  and  school  opportunity,  as  represented  by  the  length 
of  school  attendance. 

On  first  consideration  the  above  figures  would  seem  to  indicate 
that  grade  is  much  more  directly  determined  by  the  time  spent  in 
school  than  by  the  age  at  leaving,  since  the  coefficient  for  the 
latter  relationship  is  only  .44.  It  must  be  remembered,  however, 
that  those  who  had  never  attended  school  were  necessarily  omitted 
from  the  figures  on  age  at  leaving  school.  Referring  to  Table  93 
we  note  that  there  are  21  such  cases  and  that  they,  naturally,  show 
perfect  correspondence  between  opportunity  and  accomplishment, 
both  being  nil.  This  would,  of  course,  contribute  materially  to  the 
size  of  the  correlation.  Accordingly,  we  have  computed  the  cor- 
relation between  grade  and  years  in  school,  dropping  out  those 
cases  who  had  had  no  schooling.  This  gives  a  coefficient  of  .48  ± 
.043,  only  slightly  higher  than  the  correlation  between  grade  and 
age  at  leaving  school. 

Because  of  the  importance  of  this  relationship  we  have  also 
computed  the  correlation  using  only  those  cases  on  whom  we  had 
verified  data  for  both  grade  and  years  in  school  (159  cases).  This 
gives  a  still  lower  correlation,  .39  ±  .067.  We  interpret  this,  not  as 
meaning  that  the  relationship  is  less  when  we  have  reliable  data, 
but  rather  as  due  to  the  restriction  of  variability  for  the  group 
whose  records  were  verified  and  especially  to  the  loss  of  those 
approaching  the  limiting  value  of  no  schooling.  That  these  factors 
are  operative  is  shown  by  the  difference  in  the  standard  deviations 
for  grade  finished.  For  the  total  group  under  35  years  of  age  o" 
equals  2.5,  whereas  for  the  group  on  whom  we  have  completely  veri- 
fied data  for  both  grade  and  years  in  school  a  is  only  1.9. 

We  are  interested  further  in  considering  whether  the  observed 
relationship  between  grade  and  years  in  school  may  be  due  mainly 
to  a  basic  relationship  of  each  of  these  factors  with  intelligence. 
Accordingly,  we  have  figured  the  correlation  of  grade  with  years 
in  school  for  constant  intelligence,  the  latter  being  represented  by 
the  score  on  Test  Aggregate.^^     The  partial   coefficient  is   found  to 

"  The  relationship  of  intelligence  with  schooling  will  be  discussed  in  detail 
in  Chapter  XV,  pp.  493-8.     At  this  point  we  are  merel}'  interested  in  consid- 


EDUCATIONAL  BACKGROUND  283 

be  .402.  This  indicates  that  the  factor  of  intelHgencc  has  not  con- 
tributed largely  to  produce  the  relationship  noted  between  grade 
and  years  in  school.  On  the  other  hand  the  closeness  of  this  relation- 
ship is  not  raised  when  we  control  the  factor  of  intelligence  as  in  the 
above  partial.  It  might  have  been  expected  that  when  the  influence  of 
intelligence  was  eliminated  grade  attainment  would  appear  to  be 
determined  almost  exclusively  by  the  length  of  time  in  school. 

In  addition  to  the  mere  question  of  relationship  between  these 
factors  we  are  also  concerned  to  know  whether  the  grade  attain- 
ment approximates  closely  to  that  which  should  be  expected  in  view 
of  the  number  of  years  in  school.  That  it  fails  to  reach  this  level 
is  apparent  at  once  by  comparison  of  the  constants  of  Tables  84 
and  85  with  those  of  Tables  87  and  88,  respectively.  Discrepancies 
are  striking  whatever  groups  we  compare.  It  is  sufficient  to  note, 
for  example,  the  figures  on  the  Bedford  group  and  on  the  total. 
The  Bedford  women  show  an  average  number  of  years  in  school 
of  7.3,  whereas  the  average  grade  completed  is  only  4.1.  The  total 
group  with  an  average  number  of  years  in  school  of  6.5  completed 
only  4.6  grades.  The  discrepancy  between  opportunity  and  accom- 
plishment is  also  indicated  graphically  by  Chart  X\TI,  which  shows 
the  actual  grade  distribution  for  women  under  35  in  comparison 
with  the  distribution  which  would  have  been  found  had  they  pro- 
gressed at  the  normal  rate  of  one  grade  a  year.  The  failure  to  ac- 
complish anything  approximating  a  reasonable  rate  of  progress  sug-* 
gests  at  once  the  probability  of  a  generally  low  level  of  intelligence 
in  this  group.  That  this  factor  is  operative  will  be  apparent  from 
our  discussion  in  Chapter  XV.  The  evidence,  therefore,  tends  to 
confirm  the  assumption  made  earlier  in  this  chapter  to  the  effect 
that  the  record  of  grade  completion  tends  of  itself  to  be  at  least  a 
rough  measure  of  mentality.  In  this  connection,  however,  we  should 
not  overlook  the  probable  influence  of  other  environmental  factors 
tending  against  normal  progress  at  the  rate  of  a  grade  a  year.  We 
have  in  mind  especially  poor  home  conditions,  economic  stress,  etc., 
which    are   likely   to   produce    irregularity    of    school    attendance,    so 

ering  the  effect  of  this  relationship  on  the  correlation  between  the  two  meas- 
ures of  schooling  under  consideration.  The  correlation  coefficients  used  in 
computing  the  partial  are  as  follows : 

riG    =.596,    riY  =  .289,    t^^  =  A8\.    N  ^  383 

(I  equals  intelligence  as  measured  by  Test  Aggregate,  G  equals  grade,  Y  equals 
years  in  school,  and  N  equals  the  number  of  cases.) 


284      STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

that  a  year  in  school   lias  not  its   full  value  as  a  measure  of  school 
opportunity. 

(6)  RclationsJiip  of  Grade  to  Nature  of  Present  Offense. — Turn- 
ing to  the  question  of  the  relation  of  grade  attained  to  the  vari- 
ous aspects  of  the  criminal  career  of  these  women,  we  con- 
sider first  its  relationship  to  the  nature  of  the  present  offense. 
This  is  shown  in  Table  94.  By  reference  to  this  table  we  note  the 
absence  of  any  striking  distinctions,  although  the  presence  of  a  slight 


r 


J     I 
I 


Grade  Finished 


__.».«•    Grade  that  should  have 
been  finished 


0     I      .      ' 


4       •        1  7 


Chart   XVII 

Comparison  of  Grade  Finished  with  Grade  that  Should  Have  Been  Finishe.'. 
Assuming  One  Grade  Completed  in  Each  Year  in  School.  Based  on  o.il 
Delinquent  Women  under  35   Years  of   Age  at   Present  Conviction. 

degree  of  relationship  is  shown  by  the  ratio  of  .23  ±  .045.  With 
the  rough  grouping  here  used,  however,  no  single  type  of  offense 
stands  out  as  characteristic  of  the  women  of  superior  education. 
Two  groups  of  offenses,  those  against  the  family  and  those  against 
the  administration  of  government,  are  conspicuous  for  the  fact  that 
they  contain  no  women  who  had  finished  more  than  the  fourth  grade. 
In  view  of  the  extreme  smallness  of  these  groups  no  general  sig- 
nificance can  be  attached  to  this  point  as  characterizing  these  types 
of  delinquencies.  The  fact  merely  serves  to  describe  further  the 
individuals  of  our  group  who  fall  in  these  two  classes.  We  have 
noted  previously   that  the  instances  with  which  we  are  dealing  of 


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286    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

offenses  against  the  administration  of  government  are  not  the  im- 
pressive crimes  that  the  name  ipay  suggest.  Rather,  they  are  ex- 
amples of  stupid  attempts  at  evading  the  law  through  unskilful 
perjury  or  bribery.  We  are  interested  to  note  that  there  is  no  ap- 
preciable distinction  in  degree  of  education  of  those  women  guilty 
of  offenses  against  chastity  as  compared  with  those  guilty  of  offenses 
against  property.  This  is  of  special  interest  since,  as  we  shall  see 
later,  the  latter  group  shows  an  appreciable  superiority  in  general 
intelligence  over  the  former. 

(7)  Relationship  of  Grade  to  Number  of  Previous  Convictions. 
■ — Considering  next  the  relationship  between  grade  and  the  num- 
ber of  convictions,  we  obtain  the  correlation  presented  in  Table  95. 
The  coefficient,  —.06  ±:  .047,  is  too  small  to  have  any  significance. 
The  ratios,  though  slightly  larger,  would  indicate  at  most  a  barely 
appreciable  relationship.  Referring  to  the  means,  shown  in  the 
column  at  the  extreme  right  and  in  the  bottom  row  of  the  table, 
we  find  such  irregularity  that  it  is  impossible  to  formulate  the 
variations  as  indicative  of  any  consistent  trend.  It  appears,  there- 
fore, that  the  data  of  this  table  fail  to  provide  any  evidence  to 
show  that  the  amount  of  education  of  our  delinquent  women  has 
influenced  the  extent  of  their  criminal  records  to  any  degree  or  in 
any  direction. 

Since  both  the  record  of  number  of  convictions  and  that  of  grade 
attended  have  shown  appreciable,  though  slight,  relationship  with 
the  factors  of  age  and  intelligence,  it  has  seemed  important  to  take 
account  of  these  two  factors,  because  of  the  possibility  that  their 
influence  might  have  obscured  whatever  relationship  between  grade 
and  number  of  convictions  existed.  Computing  the  correlation  of 
grade  with  number  of  convictions  for  constant  age,  we  obtain  the 
coefficient  —.027.^*  It  is  evident  that  allowance  for  age  does  not 
serve  to  show  up  a  relationship  which  had  been  obscured  by  this 
factor. 

The  outcome  is  practically  the  same  when  we  make  allowance 
for  the  possible  effect  of  intelligence  in  this  connection.  In  order 
to  utilize  the  whole  group  and  not  merely  the  English-speaking  por- 
tion, we  have  used  the  score  for  the  non-language  tests  as  our 
measure   of   intelligence.     The  correlation   coefficient   of   grade  with 

"  The  data  from  which  this  partial  was  computed  are  as  follows : 
roN  —  —  -055,  Fga     =  —  .124,   Tna   =232 
(N  equals  number  of  convictions,  G  equals  grade,  A  equals  age.) 


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287 


288     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

number  of  convictions,  for  constant  intelligence,  is  found  to  be  .053.^^ 
In  view  of  the  absence  of  correlation  shown  in  these  two  partials 
we  have  not  thought  it  necessary  to  compute  the  correlation  of  grade 
with  number  of  convictions  for  both  intelligence  and  age  constant. 

(8)  Relationship  of  Grade  to  Age  at  First  Conviction. — As  in- 
dicative of  any  possible  relationship  between  grade  completed  and 
the  beginnings  of  the  criminal  career,  we  have  computed  the  corre- 
lation between  grade  and  age  at  first  conviction,  shown  in  Table 
96.  The  coefficient  is  —.08  ±:  .047  which  fails  obviously  to 
afford  evidence  of  the  existence  of  any  relationship.  The  ratio 
of  grade  on  age  at  first  conviction,  .17  ±  .046,  would  show  the 
presence  of  at  most  a  very  slight  relationship.  Since  we  are  unable 
to  discover  any  consistent  trend  in  the  variations  in  mean  grade 
with  changes  in  age  at  first  conviction,  we  do  not  consider  that 
the  existence  of  even  a  slight  relationship  is  established.  The  ratio 
of  age  at  first  conviction  on  grade  is  appreciably  larger,  .35  ±  .041. 
This  is  sufficient  to  call  for  a  careful  examination  of  the  table  to  dis- 
cover what  trend  of  relationship  is  indicated  by  these  figures. 
Reference  to  the  means  for  age  at  first  conviction  in  the  extreme 
right-hand  column  shows  a  tendency  toward  earlier  first  conviction 
for  those  falling  nearest  to  the  average  for  grade  finished.  The 
tendency  toward  delayed  age  at  first  conviction  for  those  who  had 
no  schooling  and  also  for  those  who  advanced  beyond  the  elementary 
school  is  striking.  It  will  be  remembered  that  a  similar  tendency  ap- 
peared for  the  relation  between  age  at  leaving  school  and  age  at  first 
conviction.  The  factors,  discussed  in  that  connection  as  explanatory, 
doubtless  apply  also  here. 

(&)  Amount  of  Illiteracy 

As  a  further  index  of  the  school  attainment  of  our  group,  from 
the  negative  side,  we  may  consider  the  figures  showing  the  extent 
of  illiteracy.  For  comparison  there  are  available  certain  figures 
on  the  general  population,  although  it  is  quite  certain  that  the  stand- 
ard of  what  constitutes  ilHteracy  can  not  be  considered  entirely  com- 
parable with  ours.  We  had  very  accurate  knowledge  with  reference 
to  the  degree  of  literacy  of  each  individual,  so  that  we  were  not 
dependent    on    indirect    information.      The    census    figures,    on    the 

"The  data  from  which  this  partial  was  computed  are  as  follows: 
ro.N    =  —  .055,  Fqi  =.543,  rNi=  .127 
(I  equals  intelligence,  N  and  G  have  same  significance  as  in  Note  14.) 


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289 


290     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

other  hand,  are  largely  dependent  on  mere  statement  and  on 
indirect  statement  at  that — information  given  by  one  member  of  the 
family  for  the  whole  family.  This  is  clearly  pointed  out  in  the 
discussion  of  this  subject  in  the  census  reports.  Such  dependence 
on  hearsay  information  for  the  general  population  is  inevitable,  but 
doubtless  results  in  giving  figures  for  illiteracy  which  are  far  too 
low.  For  this  reason  we  cannot  attach  much  importance  to  the 
comparison  of  our  figures  with  those  of  the  census  report,  but  we  offer 
this  comparison  as  giving  the  best  available  clue  to  the  facts. 

We  have  used  the  figures  for  the  general  female  population  over 
ten  years  of  age  in  New  York  State  obtained  in  the  census  enumera- 
tion for  1910.^''  We  have  adopted  the  same  definition  of  illiteracy, 
as  signifying  inability  of  a  person  ten  years  of  age  or  over  to  write, 
regardless  of  whether  he  can  read  or  not.  For  practical  purposes 
this  has  meant  that  an  individual  must  be  able  both  to  read  and 
write,  since  we  have  found  no  cases  who  were  able  to  write  but  not 
to  read.  Our  standard  of  what  constitutes  reading  and  writing  has 
been  exceedingly  rudimentary.  Ability  to  get  the  sense  of  even  the 
simplest  sort  of  reading  matter  or  to  convey  one's  meaning  by 
writing,  even  though  the  spelling  be  very  grotesque,  has  been  con- 
sidered adequate. 

Table  97  presents  the  data  on  the  delinquent  women  classified 
both  by  institutions  and  by  nativity  and  color,  in  comparison  with  the 
data  on  the  general  female  population,  as  regards  illiteracy  in  the 
sense  of  inability  to  read  and  write  in  any  language.  The  chief 
interest  attaches  to  the  comparison  of  the  delinquent  group  classi- 
fied by  nativity  and  color,  with  the  figures  for  the  general  popula- 
tion by  the  same  classification.  We  note  that  for  each  group  thus 
classified  the  percentage  of  illiterates  is  appreciably  higher  among 
the  delinquents  than  in  the  general  population,  according  to  these 
figures.  In  the  delinquent  group  as  in  the  general  population  the 
smallest  percentage  of  illiteracy  is  found  in  the  native  whites  (4.2), 
and  the  largest  percentage  among  the  foreign  whites  (24.0),  the  per- 
centage among  the  negroes  (10.6)  falling  between  the  other  two 
figures.  The  intercomparison  of  these  sub-groups  among  the  de- 
linquents— i.  e.,  of  native-white  with  foreign-white,  etc. — may  be  con- 
sidered entirely  trustworthy,  since  a  uniform  standard  has  been 
applied  here.  Some  interest  attaches  also  to  consideration  of  the 
percentages  of  illiterates  in  the  various  institutional   groups.     Tak- 

'"  Abstract  "Thirteenth  United  States  Census   Report,"   1910,  pp.  2i7  ff. 


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292     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

ing  into  account  the  total  population  of  each  institutional  group,  we 
note  that  the  percentages  vary  from  3.3  per  cent  for  the  probation 
group  to  22.8  per  cent  for  Auburn,  the  latter  group  showing  a  de- 
cidedly larger  percentage  than  any  of  the  others.  By  reference  to 
the  comparisons  by  nativity  and  color,  we  note  that  this  high  per- 
centage for  Auburn  is  largely  due  to  its  foreign  element. 

In  Table  98  we  offer  data  showing  the  percentages  in  the  various 
groups  who  were  unable  to  read  and  write  English.  Although 
we  have  no  comparable  data  for  the  general  population,  these  figures 
have  some  importance  as  showing  the  percentages  within  the  de- 
linquent group,  who  are  handicapped  by  inability  to  read  and  write 
the  language  of  the  country  in  which  they  live.  As  we  should  expect, 
the  percentages  of  this  table  are  identical  with  the  preceding  for 
the  group  of  native  white,  but  are  many  times  larger  for  the  foreign 
white.  Half  of  the  group  of  our  foreign  delinquents  are  unable 
to  read  even  the  simplest  subject  matter  in  English.  The  extent 
to  which  this  fact  keeps  them  from  assimilating  the  standards  of  this 
country  and  from  becoming  informed  regarding  its  laws  is  quite 
impossible  to  estimate.  Its  significance,  however,  should  not  be 
overlooked. 

(c)  Results  of  Educational  Tests 

We  have  already  commented  on  the  importance  of  the  educa- 
tional tests  as  furnishing  another  type  of  measure  of  educational 
attainment,  the  special  advantage  of  which  consists  in  the  fact  that 
it  furnishes  an  objective  measure  and  is  thus  free  from  the  un- 
certainty which  attaches  to  the  women's  own  statements  regarding 
educational  progress.  In  the  following  section  we  offer  data  on  cer- 
tain of  these  tests.  (For  general  account  of  the  tests  used  see  Chapter 
IV).  Our  selection  of  tests  to  report  at  this  time  has  been  deter- 
mined, partly  by  the  desire  to  have  tests  representative  of  a  variety 
of  educational  processes,  and  partly  by  the  desire  to  have  tests  which 
had  been  reasonably  well  standardized  with  school  groups.  With 
these  objects  in  mind  the  following  tests  have  been  chosen:  Trabue 
scale  A  for  reading;  Buckingham  scale  for  spelling  (Thorndike  selec- 
tion) ;  Ayres  scale  for  handwriting;  Courtis — Series  B — for  arith- 
metic. Since  we  have  no  data  on  the  general  population  based  on  these 
measures,  we  present  our  figures  mainly  for  their  value  for  later  refer- 
ence.   We  have  indicated  such  standards  as  are  available  showing  what 


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294    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

score  is  to  be  expected  from  children  now  in  school  in  any  given  grade. 
Formulation  of  the  norms  which  we  have  used  may  be  found  in  the 
appropriate  references  cited  in  Chapter  IV. 

(1)  Reading — Trahue  Scale. — Table  99  shows  the  numbers  and 
percentages  of  the  various  institutional  groups  and  of  the  total  who 
reached  the  median  score  for  each  grade.  It  shows  also  the  median 
for  each  group  with  the  grade  standard  to  which  this  corresponds. 
English-speaking  cases  only  were  considered.  From  inspection  of  the 
table  it  is  apparent  that  all  groups  except  the  Magdalen  show  appre- 
ciable percentages  who  are  unable  to  do  better  than  children  in  the 
second  grade. 

The  median  score  of  the  total  group  reaches  the  standard  achieved 
by  children  in  fifth  grade.  This  is  interesting  in  comparison  with 
data  regarding  grade  completed.  We  see  by  Table  88  that  the 
native  born  women  had  completed,  on  the  average,  5.0  grades.  Their 
accomplishment  along  the  lines  of  reading  are  obviously  quite  closely 
in  accord  with  these  figures  on  grade.  Among  the  institutional  groups 
the  Magdalen,  the  Penitentiary  and,  strangely  enough,  Auburn,  rank 
highest,  rising  to  the  standard  for  sixth  grade.  Bedford  and  Proba- 
tion are,  however,  on  approximately  the  same  level  as  these,  as  shown 
by  the  median  scores,  even  though  they  fall  below  the  dividing  line 
between  the  standard  for  sixth  grade  and  that  for  fifth.  The  Work- 
house is  a  distinct  step  lower,  rising  only  to  the  level  of  fourth 
grade. 

(2)  Spelling — Buckingham. — Table  100  shows  data  in  similar  form 
to  that  given  for  the  Trabue  scale  in  Table  99.  The  grade  standing 
for  the  group  as  a  whole,  as  well  as  for  most  of  the  sub-groups,  is 
higher  by  this  measure  than  by  the  reading  scale.  The  total  reaches 
the  6th  grade  standard :  the  Magdalen  group  rises  to  the  8th  grade,  the 
Penitentiary  and  Probation  to  the  7th,  Bedford  and  Auburn  to  the 
6th.  the  Workhouse  again  drops  as  low  as  the  4th. 

(3)  Handimting — Ayres  Scale. — Handwriting  has  been  measured 
from  two  points  of  view,  quality  and  speed.  To  get  the  former  meas- 
ure, samples  were  compared  with  Ayres'  samples  of  adult  handwriting. 
The  distributions  of  results  are  shown  in  Table  101.  The  lowness  of 
the  grade  levels  of  our  groups,  measured  by  these  standards,  is  very 
striking.  In  no  case  does  the  median  of  one  of  our  groups  exceed  the 
median  for  the  2nd  grade.  For  three  of  the  groups,  and  for  the  total, 
the  median  falls  below  that  for  2nd  grade. 


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297 


298    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

When  we  turn  to  figures  on  rate  of  writing  given  in  Table  102, 
we  find  a  very  different  result.  All  of  our  groups  but  one — the 
Workhouse — achieve  the  level  of  8th  grade  accomplishment.  Even 
the  Workhouse  median  is  as  high  as  that  for  7th  grade.  It  appears, 
therefore,  that  the  members  of  our  group  have  an  admirable  speed  but 
a  very  inferior  quality  of  penmanship. 

(4)  Arithmetic — Courtis. — As  representative  of  accomplishment  in 
arithmetic  we  offer  data  on  the  two  fundamental  processes  of  addition 
and  division,  as  measured  by  the  Courtis  scale.  In  certain  ways  we 
preferred  the  Woody  scale  for  our  purposes  since  it  does  not  exceed 
the  limitations  of  the  ability  of  our  women  so  strikingly  as  does  the 
Courtis  scale.  We  have  chosen  to  report  on  the  latter,  however,  be- 
cause of  the  importance  of  the  grade  norms  established  for  this  scale. 

Table  103  shows  the  distribution  of  scores  for  the  problems  in 
addition.  The  superiority  of  the  Magdalen  is  again  apparent,  both 
from  inspection  of  the  distribution  and  from  consideration  of  the 
grade  norm  (5th)  to  which  its  median  score  corresponds.  Bedford, 
the  Workhouse  and  Probation  reach  only  4th  grade  standard,  while 
Auburn  and  the  Penitentiary  fall  below  the  4th  grade  norm. 

Table  104  shows  the  results  obtained  with  the  Courtis  scale  for 
division  and  makes  apparent  how  markedly  this  scale  overshot  the 
ability  of  our  group.  Over  half  of  the  total  group  were  unable  to 
complete  a  single  problem  correctly.  In  the  Workhouse  as  many 
as  86  per  cent  were  unable  to  get  a  single  problem,  and  even  in  the 
Magdalen  31  per  cent  failed  entirely.  Observation  of  the  individuals 
at  work  indicated  that  a  certain  proportion  of  these  failures  were 
due  to  an  inability  to  recall  the  method  of  long  division,  though 
this  had  at  one  time  been  learned.  The  attempt  to  recall  this  strange 
and  never-used  mechanism  showed  a  marked  similarity  to  the  per- 
formance of  the  average  college  student  v/hen  suddenly  confronted 
with  a  problem  in  cube  root.  The  level  for  the  group  as  a  whole 
was  below  the  median  for  4th  grade.  Only  Bedford  and  the  Mag- 
dalen rose  above  this,  the  former  reaching  the  4th  grade  standard 
and  the  latter  the   5th  grade. 

It  is  apparent  from  the  foregoing  account  that  the  educational 
tests  do  not  offer  a  more  favorable  impression  of  the  school  attain- 
ments of  these  women  than  do  the  data  regarding  school  grade.  In 
only  isolated  instances  do  the  groups  rise  above  the  level  for  5th 
grade  and  in  numerous  instances  they  fall  to  4th  grade  standards  or 
below.    The  highest  scores,  from  point  of  view  of  grade  norms,  were 


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■^ 


302    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

made  on  spelling  and  on  rate  of  handwriting;  the  lowest  on  long  divi- 
sion and  on  quality  of  handwriting. 

The  consistently  low  record  of  the  Workhouse  by  these  measures 
is  of  interest  as  tending  to  confirm  our  suspicion  that  they  had 
overstated  the  facts  regarding  grade  attainments. 


From  the  data  presented  in  this  chapter  it  appears : 

1.  That  the  delinquent  women  fall  conspicuously  below  the 
standards  of  present-day  opinion  as  to  what  should  be  expected 
regarding  both  the  age  at  which  one  should  be  allowed  to  leave 
school  and  the  minimum  grade  which  he  should  have  reached.  Never- 
theless we  are  unable  to  state  whether  our  women  fall  below  the 
level  of  the  general  public  in  these  respects. 

2.  That  their  school  attainment,  as  indicated  by  grade  com- 
pleted, has  not  kept  pace  with  their  opportunities  as  represented 
by  the  number  of  years  in  school. 

3.  That  there  is  a  distinct  tendency  toward  poorer  educational 
opportunity  and  attainments  among  the  older  women  of  our  group 
as  compared  with  the  younger  women. 

4.  That  the  native-white  are  superior  to  both  the  foreign  born 
and  the  colored  with  respect  to  both  school  opportunity  and  school 
attainment:  and  that  the  foreign  born  are  inferior  to  the  colored 
in  both  respects.  . 

5.  That  the  more  striking  institutional  differences  appear  to 
be  due  to  one  or  the  other  of  the  two  factors  just  mentioned — age 
and  nativity  differences — except  in  so  far  as  they  are  occasioned  by 
differences  in  degree  of  verification  of  facts. 

6.  That  the  amount  of  illiteracy  among  the  delinquent  groups 
is  relatively  high,  varying  from  4  per  cent  for  the  native  white  to 
24  per  cent  for  the  foreign  white:  that  these  percentages  are  de- 
cidedly higher  than  those  for  similar  groups  in  the  general  population, 
though  the  significance  of  this  comparison  is  weakened  by  the  fact 
that  the  two  types  of  groups  have  not  been  measured  by  equally  severe 
standards. 

7.  That  the  relationships  between  education  and  the  various  as- 
pects of  the  delinquent  career  are  at  most  slight. 

Some  tendency  appeared  for  those  with  least  schooling  and  those 
with  most  schooling  to  have  been  convicted  first  at  a  later  age  than 
those    falling  in   the   intermediate   range    regarding   schooling.      The 


EDUCATIONAL  BACKGROUND  303 

influence  of  other  factors  than  schoohng  was  suspected  as  producing 
this  relationship. 

A  sHght  relationship  was  found  between  grade  and  nature  of 
offense,  with  those  guilty  of  offenses  against  property,  against  chastity, 
and  against  regulations  for  public  health  having  reached  slightly 
higher  grades  than  those  guilty  of  other  offenses. 

Unambiguous  evidence  of  relationship  either  between  years  in 
school  and  number  of  convictions,  or  between  grade  and  number  of 
convictions,  was  not  found.  Even  allowance  for  the  effect  of  age, 
and  of  intelligence,  did  not  disclose  the  presence  of  such  a  rela- 
tionship. 


CHAPTER  XI 
OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  ECONOMIC  EFFICIENCY 

THE  history  of  criminal  science  is  rife  with  various  contentions  as  to 
the  essential  factors  most  closely  related  to  criminality.  One  of  the 
most  fruitful  fields  of  discussion  has  been,  and  still  is,  the  importance 
rof  stressing  the  economic  system  of  recent  years  as  entirely  unassoci- 
Vated  with,  or,  on  the  other  haid,  directly  inherent  in  the  etiology  of 
^crime.    The  two  most  divergent  schools  in  this  respect  are  probably  the 
Italian  School,  fathered  by  Lombroso,  and  the  Socialists,  known  as  the 
"Third  School."  The  doctrine  of  the  Italian  School,  as  has  previously 
been  stated,  is  based  on  the  theory  that  there  is  a  definite  criminal  type, 
distinguished   from   the   non-criminal   element   of   the  population   by 
physical  and  mental  stigmata.     Though  these  criminal  anthropologists 
do  not  deny  that  adverse  economic  conditions  may  often  be  somewhat 
responsible  for  certain  types  of  crime,  they  contend  that  the  real  cause 
"of  crime  is^^agt^   The  Socialists,  on  the  other  hand,  go  to  the  extreme 
of  emphasizing  the  economic  factor  over  all  others,  and  assuming  that 
with  a  more  socialistic  regime  of  the  economic  system  the  amount  of 
crime  would  gradually  diminish.    This  theory  was  advanced  by  Karl 
Marx: 

"In  the  social  production  which  men  carry  on  they  enter  into  definite 
relations  that  are  indispensable  and  independent  of  their  will;  these  rela- 
tions of  production  correspond  to  a  definite  stage  of  development  of  their 
material  powers  of  production.  The  sum  total  of  these  relations  of  produc- 
tion constitutes  the  economic  structure  of  society — the  real  foundation,  on 
which  rise  legal  and  political  superstructures  and  to  which  correspond 
definite  forms  of  social  consciousness.  The  mode  of  production  in  material 
life  determines  the  general  character  of  the  social,  political  and  spiritual 
processes  of  life.  It  is  not  the  consciousness  of  men  that  determines  their 
existence,  but,  on  the  contrary,  their  social  existence  determines  their 
consciousness."  * 

*  Marx,  Karl.  "A  Contribution  to  the  Critique  of  Political  Economy,"  p.  11. 
Translated  from  the  Second  German  Edition  by  N.  I.  Stone.  New  York:  The 
International  Library  Publishing  Co.,  1904. 

304 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY       305 

Many  of  the  tenets  of  the  criminal  anthropologists  have  been  proved 
unsound,  particularly  those  relating  to  the  presence  of  physical  stig- 
mata in  the  criminal.  The  work  of  the  later  criminologists  has  also 
discredited  the  extreme  views  of  the  Socialists,  that  all  the  relations  of 
mankind,  associated  with  criminality,  are  exclusively  determined  by 
economic  relations. 

Our  study  of  587  women,  though  comparatively  small  in  numbers, 
includes  women  from  all  over  New  York  state  with  the  largest  num-* 
ber  from  New  York  city.  This  city  of  infinite  economic  resources 
expending  themselves  in  occupations  of  almost  every  description  ofifers 
us  an  admirable  opportunity  for  observation  of  the  industrial  situation 
as  it  has  affected  these  women  convicted  of  breaking  the  law.  At  the 
outset  we  must  disagree  with  the  extremists  of  the  Socialist  School  in 
their  lack  of  emphasis  on  the  individual  mental  defect  or  abnormality 
which  may  be  the  determining  factor  in  making  one  member  of  a  family 
an  offender  against  the  law,  while  all  the  other  members — under  the 
same  economic  system — do  not  become  anti-social  in  their  actions. 
That  the  present  economic  system  is  undoubtedly  responsible,  to  a  cer-\\ 
tain  extent,  for  many  of  the  factors  associated  with  delinquency,  suchV 
as  the  economic  status  of  home  conditions  discussed  in  Chapter  IX,  no  J 
one  will  deny.  But  that  this  alone  is  the  prime  cause  of  crime  is  as 
futile  to  assert  as  that  the  development  of  modern  industry  has  had 
no  effect  on  the  complications  which  are  associated  with  crime. 

We  have  attempted  in  this  study  to  give  a  bird's-eye  survey  of  the 
work  histories  of  these  women  from  the  time  of  starting  work  to  the 
present  conviction,  and  including  not  only  the  prevailing  kind  of  work 
done,  with  the  average  wage  for  this  work,  but  also  the  kind  of  work 
and  the  wage  in  the  first  job,  at  time  of  the  first  and  present  conviction 
and  in  the  latest  job.^  An  effort  to  summarize  the  various  factors  of 
the  work  record  has  been  made  in  the  estimate  of  regularity  of  the 
work,  and  the  estimate  of  the  entire  work  history. 

It  is  not  easy  from  such  a  summary  to  draw  definite  conclusions 
because  of  the  fact  that  for  the  general  population  no  adequate  wage 
studies  have  recently  been  made  for  all  occupations  in  a  given  com- 
munity, and  there  are  no  other  studies  comparable  to  ours  in  the  con- 
sideration of  wage.  Even  studies  of  delinquency  are  notably  lacking 
in  more  than  brief  statements  of  the  average  wage  or  the  highest  and 

*  Throughout,  "work"  has  been  used  to  signify  work  in  which  one  was 
gainfully  employed,  and  does  not  include  the  work  of  women  who  were  doing 
their  own  housework. 


306    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

lowest  wage,  with  no  effort  to  determine  what  kind  of  work  was 
being  done  at  any  crucial  time  in  the  delinquent's  life,  how  much  of  the 
time  he  had  been  idle,  and  what  his  earning  capacity  was  at  any  given 
significant  time.  Wherever  possible,  comparisons  will  be  made  with 
isolated  studies  of  wage  and  kind  of  work  for  the  general  population, 
but  these  are  necessarily  limited  to  few.  That  our  group  shows  a  low 
earning  capacity  and  irregular  work  might  not  be  significant  if  com- 
pared with  equally  reliable  data  for  all  women  in  New  York  state. 
But  since  the  other  part  of  the  comparison  is  not  available  at  this 
time,  we  shall  present  ours  as  indicative  of  the  type  of  record  that 
occurs  among  delinquent  women,  and  leave  the  rest  of  the  comparison 
to  follow  later. 

AGE  AT  STARTING  WORK 

The  Child  Labor  Law  in  New  York  State  provides  that  no  children 
may  be  legally  employed  under  14  years,  and  that  children  from  14  to 
16  must  secure  certificates  before  they  can  be  employed  legally.' 
Although  this  law  has  been  in  effect  for  many  years,  it  is  interesting  to 
note,  from  Table  105,  that  80  women,  or  14.8  per  cent  of  the  total 
group,  began  to  work  before  they  were  fourteen  years  of  age.  Of  this 
number,  21  women  were  foreign  born  so  that  this  law  would  not  apply 
to  them,  and  26,  though  native  born,  lived  during  their  childhood  in 
states  other  than  New  York,  in  most  of  which,  however,  there  were 
restrictions  against  child  labor  under  fourteen  years.  At  the  least  con- 
sideration, there  are  between  7  and  13  per  cent  of  the  total  group  who 
began  to  work  before  the  age  at  which  they  were  legally  allowed  to,  and 
which  New  York  state  has  set  as  the  minimum  age  possible  for  children 
to  work  and  retain  their  good  health.  Each  institutional  group  is 
represented  among  those  who  began  to  work  before  fourteen  years,  but 
Auburn  has  by  far  the  largest  percentage,  probably  due  to  the  fact  that 
there  is  in  this  institution  a  large  percentage  of  foreign  women  and  a 
preponderance  of  the  older  women  who  began  to  work  years  ago  when 
the  restrictions  against  child  labor  were  few  and  not  well  enforced. 
If  we  compare  the  percentage  of  women  starting  to  work  between  ten 
and  fourteen  years  in  our  total  group  of  delinquents,  with  the  percent- 
age of  the  general  female  population  between  ten  and  fourteen  years 
of  age  in  New  York  state  who  were  working  in  1910,  we  find  that  in 
the  one  case  the  percentage  is  14.8,  while  in  the  other  it  is  only  .1  of  a 

^  Consolidated  Laws  1909,  vol.  3,  chapter  31,  article  6,  section  70,  as  amended 
by  Chapter  529  of  the  laws  of  1913. 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        307 


per  cent.*  These  figures  are  not  exactly  comparable  since  the  age  at 
starting  work  may  extend  over  many  different  years  while  the  census 
figures  apply  to  those  of  given  ages  working  during  one  specified  year. 
They  do,  however,  indicate  a  trend,  which  it  is  important  to  observe, 
for  the  delinquent  women  to  go  to  work  earlier  than  the  women  of  the 
general  population. 

TABLE  105 

AGE  AT  STARTING  WORK 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Age  at  Starting  Work 

Bed- 
ford 

Aubiirn 

Mag-       Peni- 
dalen    tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Prob 
tion 

Total 
1- 

6  to  10  years 

4.1 
14.3 
69.4 
10.2 

5.3 

24.6 
45.6     . 

5.3     '. 
10.5 

1.8 

'i!8 
1.8 
1.8 

'^8 

1.4        .... 

14.9      15.0 

56.8      34.0 

n.6      21.0 

2.7        8.0 

2.7        8.0 

7.0 

1.0 

3.0 

1.0 

2.0 

1.4 

20.0 

32.9 

18.6 

10.0 

2.9 

2.9 

4.3 

1.4 

2.9 

1.4 

'2/ 
65.^ 
17.  f 

6.( 

5.. 
1.^ 

1.9 

10    "    14       "     

14    "    18       "     

1        14.8 
^       51.1 

18    "    22       "     

^        16.1 

22    "    26       "     

)         5.9 

26    "    30       "     

2.0 

)         4.2 

30    "    34       "     

1:           2.1 

34    "    38       "     

1.1 

38    "    42       "     

1.1 

42    "    46       "     

.9 

46    "    50       "     

.6 

50    "    54       "     

.2 

54    "    68       "     

58    "    62       "     

.2 

Total 

100.0 

100.0    K 

)0.0    100.0 

100.0 

100.  ( 

)      100.0 

Number  of  cases 

98 

57 

74          100 

70 

73 

472 

The  range  of  age  at  starting  work,  it  will  be  seen,  divides  itself 
into  two  distinct  groups — those  who  have  started  work  before  30  tO'  35 
years,  represented  by  the  Bedford,  Magdalen  and  Probation  groups,  in 
which  the  average  age  at  present  conviction  is  lowest,  and  those  who 
have  started  work  at  a  wide  range  of  ages,  represented  by  the  Auburn, 
Penitentiary  and  Workhouse  groups.  In  the  latter  three  institutions 
it  may  be  of  interest  to  note  briefly  the  women  who  were  not  gainfully 
employed  until  they  were  42  years  of  age  or  over.  The  two  Auburn 
women  who  fall  in  this  group  are  both  foreign,  one  born  in  Italy  and 


*  Thirteenth   Census  of  the  United   States,   1910.    "Occupational   Statistics," 
p.  46. 


308     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

one  in  Russia.  The  Italian  woman  was  married  to  a  man  who  drank 
and  finally  began  to  go  with  other  women.  When  she  was  44  she  left 
him,  was  forced  to  support  her  family  and  began  to  practise  midwifery. 
She  had  done  no  work  previous  to  this  and  was  not  trained  to  do  any- 
thing. Her  present  conviction  was  for  abortion  performed  on  one  of 
her  patients.  The  Russian  woman  had  never  done  any  work  outside 
of  her  home  until  six  years  before  the  present  conviction  when  her  hus- 
band died  and  she  was  obliged  to  support  her  children.  At  that  time, 
at  the  age  of  53,  she  bought  a  dry-goods  store.  The  store  did  not 
prove  to  be  very  successful  and  she  attempted  to  burn  it.  She  was 
convicted  of  attempted  arson  and  evidence  was  brought  at  the  trial  that 
she  had  made  various  previous  attempts  to  dispose  of  the  store  in  a  like 
manner. 

The  three  Penitentiary  women  represent  somewhat  different  types 
than  those  just  mentioned.  One  woman,  now  47  years  old,  was  mar- 
ried when  32.  She  never  did  any  work  before  or  after  her  marriage 
until  three  years  before  her  conviction,  when  she  was  short  of  money. 
Previous  to  this  her  husband  had  left  her  because  she  was  a  drug  user. 
He  gave  her  a  large  sum  of  money,  but  she  spent  so  much  for  drugs 
that  it  did  not  last  long  and  she  was  forced  to  earn  more.  Another 
Penitentiary  woman,  now  63  years,  born  in  Austria,  was  married  when 
young  and  did  no  work  except  the  housework  and  work  on  her  fa- 
ther's and  husband's  farm.  Years  after,  when  she  had  been  in  this 
country  for  a  short  time,  she  worked  three  or  four  years  as  a  coat 
finisher  in  a  factory.  This  was  only  to  tide  over  a  critical  period  in 
the  family  finances.  The  third  Penitentiary  woman  is  50  years  old, 
colored,  born  in  the  South.  She  has  probably  worked  very  little, 
except  for  short  and  irregular  times  the  year  before  the  present  con- 
viction when  her  consort  was  in  a  hospital.  She  admitted  that  she  had 
prostituted  many  years,  had  used  heroin  steadily,  and  that  the  work 
was  only  an  incidental  thing  in  her  life. 

The  four  Workhouse  women  who  did  no  work  outside  of  their 
homes  until  after  they  were  42  are  all  white,  two  native  and  two  for- 
eign. The  first  woman  is  now  43.  She  was  born  in  Sweden  and  came 
to  this  country  when  23.  Two  years  later  she  married  a  man  whom 
she  later  divorced,  and  after  leaving  him  she  worked  for  a  short  time 
at  general  housework.  She  has  had  a  long  record  of  prostitution  and 
the  only  work  she  did  was  probably  sporadic.  Another  woman,  now 
46  years  old,  did  no  work  until  the  year  before  her  present  arrest, 
when  she  worked  as  waitress  in  a  hotel.    Her  husband  had  died  several 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        309 

years  before.  She  was  a  most  erratic,  unstable  person  and  had  been  in 
a  hospital  for  the  insane  for  some  time  after  her  husband's  death.  The 
third  Workhouse  case  in  question  is  a  woman  51  years  old  who  has 
been  in  this  country  for  three  years.  Soon  after  arriving  here  she  be- 
gan to  work  as  cook.  Her  husband  had  died  fourteen  years  before  her 
coming  to  this  country  and  during  that  time  she  had  a  '"lover,"  a  promi- 
nent lawyer  in  Berlin,  who  supported  her.  The  fourth  Workhouse  case 
is  a  woman  who  has  been  married  twice,  her  second  husband  dying  just 
one  year  previous  to  the  time  she  began  to  work.  She  says  that  when 
she  was  a  girl  her  family  was  in  comfortable  circumstances.  'T  never 
knew  what  it  meant  to  soil  my  hands,  we  had  so  many  Chinese  ser- 
vants." Her  present  conviction  was  for  violation  of  the  Tenement 
House  Law,  and  it  seems  likely  that  she  had  been  prostituting  for  some 
time.     Her  short  work  record  was  very  irregular. 

As  a  W'hole,  the  group  of  older  women  who  did  not  begin  to  work 
until  late  in  life  is  small  and  represents  women  who  have  not  found 
it  necessary  to  work  before,  either  because  they  were  married  and  being 
supported  by  their  husbands  or  because  they  were  obtaining  money  in 
an  illegal  manner.  The  work  records  of  these  women  are,  for  the  most 
part,  very  brief  and  the  various  jobs  are  so  isolated  that  they  are 
scarcely  comparable  to  the  records  of  most  of  the  younger  w^omen. 

A  frequent  contention  is  that  starting  to  work  at  an  early  age 
is  a  common  cause  of  getting  into  the  courts  through  meeting  bad 
acquaintances,  losing  respect  for  the  head  of  the  family  through  in- 
creased independence,  as  well  as  for  other  reasons  intrinsic  in  the 
occupational  situation,  notably  the  tendency  to  get  into  "blind  alley" 
jobs.  Table  106  shows  the  relationship  which  exists  for  our  group 
of  women  between  age  at  first  conviction  and  age  at  starting  work. 
There  is  clear  evidence  of  a  relationship  here  as  shown  by  the  coefficient 
of  correlation  of  .51  ±.034.  However,  we  can  not  accept  these  data 
as  evidence  that  there  is  a  real  tendency  for  those  who  start  work  young 
to  be  convicted  early  in  life  and  those  who  start  work  later  not  to  be 
convicted  until  later  years,  until  we  have  taken  into  account  the  effect 
of  present  age.  This  obviously  affects  both  age  at  first  conviction  and 
age  at  starting  work,  since  one  who  is  now  of  a  given  age  must  both 
have  been  convicted  before  that  age  and  have  started  work  before  then 
if  at  all.  Accordingly,  the  correlation  coefficient  may  measure  simply 
the  degree  of  dependence  of  each  of  these  variables  on  the  factor  of 
age.    We  have,  therefore,  determined  the  partial  correlation  coefficient 


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OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        311 

for  age  at  first  conviction  with  age  at  starting  work,  making  present 
age  the  constant  factor.^  The  correlation  coefficient,  .004±.046,  would 
indicate  that  the  apparent  relationship  between  age  at  first  conviction 
and  age  at  starting  work  is  entirely  due  to  the  relationship  of  each  of 
these  to  age.  Accordingly,  we  find  no  confirmation  for  the  view  which 
regards  an  early  age  of  starting  work  as  one  of  the  important  deter- 
minants of  early  criminality. 

KIND  OF   WORK  DONE 

(a)     Classification  of  Kind  of  Work 

Before  discussing  in  detail  the  nature  of  work  done  at  various  times 
during  the  working  careers  of  these  women,  the  method  of  classifying 
kinds  of  work  will  be  observed  briefly.  It  is  difficult  to  classify  accu- 
rately kinds  of  work  done  by  women  of  varying  ages  for  different 
periods  of  time.  To  make  this  difficulty  as  slight  as  possible,  therefore, 
questions  relating  to  kind  of  work  done  were  asked  very  carefully  with 
a  view  to  finding  out  what  was  meant  by  "factory  work,"  "office  girl," 
"nurse,"  etc.,  both  from  the  woman  and  the  employer.  The  results 
were  codified  by  the  main  divisions  of  the  Census  Index  to  Occupa- 
tions® and  were  later  regrouped  into  eleven  classes  which  seemed  to  fit 
the  needs  of  a  selected  group  of  women  better  than  did  the  entire 
census  scheme  which  was  made  up  from  returns  of  occupations  for  all 
wage-earners  in  the  country,  both  male  and  female.  The  eleven  classes 
used  were  based  on  the  conditions  surrounding  given  kinds  of  work 
as  well  as  on  degree  of  skill  involved  in  the  work,  and  include  the  fol- 
lowing occupations : 

1.  Domestic  Service  includes  women  working  at  general  housework, 
nurse-girls,  waitresses  or  cooks  in  private  homes,  lady's  maids,  and 
housekeepers.  This  group  includes  all  cases  where  living  is  in 
addition  to  wage,  and  where  the  nature  of  the  employment  demands 
that  the  women  live  at  the  place  where  they  work, 

2.  Factory  Work  includes  women  working  in  a  factory  where  there 
is  a  group  of  people.  Laundry  workers  in  a  laundry  have  been 
put  in  this  group  also,  since  the  numbers  seemed  too  small  for  a 

^  The  necessary  data  for  computing  the  partial  are  the  following : 
r  (age  at  first  conviction  with  age  at  starting  work)  =  .508 
r  (age  at  first  conviction  with  age)  =  .964 

r  (age  at  starting  work  with  age)  =  .526 

°  Bureau  of  the  Census :  "Index  to  Occupations,"  1915. 


312     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

separate  division,  and  the  general  conditions  of  work  are  similar 
to   those  in   factories. 

3.  Home  Work  includes  workers  who  are  able  to  earn  their  living  by 
remaining  in  their  own  homes  and  who  work  alone  for  the  most 
part.  This  is  a  somewhat  heterogeneous  group  of  dressmakers  at 
home,  lodging-house-keepers,  janitresses  and  those  who  bring  work 
home  from  a  factory.  This  class  is  intended  to  show  especially  the 
contrast  in  conditions  of  work  from  those  of  the  previous  group. 

4.  Restaurant  and  Hotel  Work  includes  waitresses  in  restaurants  and 

hotels,  chambermaids  in  hotels,  laundry  workers  in  hotels,  a  very 
few  restaurant  keepers,  and  one  manager  of  a  small  hotel. 

5.  Work  in  Stores  includes  clerks,  salesladies,  models,  cash  girls,  mes- 

sengers, errand  girls,  demonstrators,  milliners,  and  five  women  who 
themselves  kept  small  stores. 

6.  Vaudeville   Performers   include    show   girls,    acrobats,    one    dancing 

teacher  who  occasionally  gave  exhibition  performances  in  theaters, 
and  one  girl  who  sang  in  a  cabaret  in  a  saloon. 

7.  Clerical  Work  includes  bookkeepers,  two  cashiers,  stenographers  and 

typewriters,  shipping  clerks  and  one  office  girl  for  a  doctor. 

8.  Professional  Service  includes  two  school  teachers,  two  authors,  and 

one  piano  teacher. 

9.  Personal  Service  includes  manicurists,   hair-dressers,   one  masseuse, 

and  ten  practical  nurses  and  midwives. 

10.  Charwomen  include  ten  women  who  do  cleaning  by  the  day  in  office 

buildings,  etc. 

11.  Miscellaneous  includes  seventeen  occupations  which  fit  into  no  gen- 

eral scheme  and  each  of  which  is  too  small  in  number  to  be  given 
a  separate  class.  There  are  in  this  group  two  dog-fanciers,  one  for- 
tune-teller, one  peddler,  one  newspaper  distributor,  one  helper  in  a 
greenhouse,  one  commission  agent,  six  unskilled  farm  workers,  two 
ushers  in  a  theater  and  two  telephone  operator's. 

The  (lisciission  of  kind  of  work  done  at  various  times  in  the  work 
histories  of  these  women  will  be  based  on  comparisons  of  these  eleven 
classes  of  work.  We  have  selected  as  the  most  important  specific  jobs 
in  a  woman's  work  history  the  kind  of  work  (1)  in  the  first  job,  (2) 
in  the  latest  job,  (3)  at  the  time  of  first  conviction,  (4)  at  the  time  of 
latest  conviction,  and  (5)  prevailing  work.  The  method  of  determin- 
ing the  prevailing  work  will  be  discussed  later.  The  kind  of  work  at 
these  given  times  will  be  considered  separately  by  institutional  groups, 
summarized  for  the  total  group  and  compared  with  percentages  for  the 
general  female  population  when  possible. 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        313 

(b)  Kind  of  Work  Done  at  Specified  Times 

(1)  Kind  of  Work  m  First  Job. — The  kind  of  work  in  the  first 
employment  is  particularly  important  to  consider  in  connection  with 
prevailing  work  and  the  estimate  of  efficiency  of  a  work  record.  It  is 
difficult  to  draw  any  definite  conclusions  from  the  kind  of  work  in  the 
first  job,  per  se,  because  of  the  fact  that  this  first  work  represents  in 
one  case  perhaps  the  beginning  of  a  long  and  efficient  work  record 
while  in  another  case  it  may  be  only  the  casual  job  performed  in  later 
life  to  tide  over  a  financial  embarrassment.  As  we  have  seen  in  Table 
105,  the  age  at  starting  work  runs  from  the  illegitimate  employments 
under  fourteen  years  up  to  the  Workhouse  woman  who  started  to 
work  at  58  years,  after  her  husband's  death.  With  these  older  women 
who  have  had  no  training  and  who  take  whatever  work  they  can  most 
easily  get  to  tide  them  over  any  given  financial  stress,  the  first  employ- 
ment does  not  represent  at  it  does  with  the  younger  women  the  begin- 
ning of  a  work  history,  but  merely  an  isolated  job.  Since  the  number 
who  started  work  late  in  life  is  comparatively  small,  however,  we  shall 
present  Table  107,  keeping  in  mind  that  there  is  this  constant  small 
element  of  women  starting  work  late,  and  having  no  conscious  se- 
lection of  kind  of  work  since  the  work  itself  is  so  casual. 

From  Table  107  it  is  observed,  first  of  all,  that  the  large  bulk  of 
cases  in  each  institutional  group,  except  Probation,  falls  in  the  domestic 
service  class  at  the  time  of  their  first  job.  This  varies,  however,  be- 
tween the  institutional  groups,  the  Workhouse  having  the  largest  per- 
centage of  domestic  service  workers  and  Probation  the  smallest  per- 
centage. The  factory  workers  who  have  the  second  highest  percentage 
in  all  groups  except  Probation,  where  they  have  first  place,  do  not 
vary  markedly  between  the  institutional  groups  except  in  the  Work- 
house which  has  a  very  much  smaller  percentage  of  factoiy  workers 
than  the  other  groups  have.  Home  work  is  not  of  particular  signifi- 
cance, apparently,  in  any  of  the  groups,  and  is  chiefly  conspicuous  be- 
cause Bedford  has  no  representative  in  this  group.  The  restaurant  and 
hotel  workers  vary  to  quite  an  extent  and  indicate  that  a  larger  per- 
centage of  women  in  the  Workhouse  than  in  any  other  group  went  first 
into  this  work.  Workers  in  stores  furnish  16.3  per  cent  of  the  Pro- 
bation group,  and  are  represented  to  a  somewhat  smaller  degree  in  the 
other  groups.  Vaudeville  performers  have  the  highest  percentages  in 
the  Probation  and  Workhouse  groups,  with  no  representative  in  Au- 
burn.    Clerical  work,  on  the  other  hand,  while  it  has  a  percentage  of 


314     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUE^.TS  IN  NEW  YORK 

TABLE  107 

KIND  OF  WORK  IN  FIRvST  JOB 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  by  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Geo 

DPS 

Kind  of  Work 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

Domestic  Service 

44.6 
29.7 

46.3 

25.0 

6.3 

2.5 

7.5 

l'3 

3.8 

'2^5 

37.1 
32.9 
4.3 
2.9 
10.0 
1.3 
4.3 
1.3 
4.3 

'1^3 

34.6 
30.8 

.9 

4.7 
7.5 
1.9 
5.6 

2.8 
2.8 
1.9 

2.8 

47.5 

12.1 

5.1 

10.1 

11.1 

5.1 

2.0 

I'.O 

i^o 

19.8 

32.6 

3.5 

7.0 
16.3 

5.8 
5.8 

'3^5 

'2^3 

38.5 

Factory  Work 

Home  Work    

26.9 
3.1 

Restaurant  and  Hotel  Work .  .  . 

Work  in  Stores 

Vaudeville  Performers 

5.0 
7.9 
2.0 
4.0 
1.0 
1.0 

5.5 
9.9 

2.8 

Clerical  Work 

3.7 

Professional  Service 

1.1 

Personal  Service 

2.6 

Charwomen 

.4 

Miscellaneous 

2.0 

2.0 

Never  Worked 

3.0 

5.0 

3.7 

5.1 

3.5 

3.5 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

101 

80 

70 

107 

99 

86 

543 

5.8  in  the  Probation  group,  has  only  2.0  per  cent  of  the  Workhouse 
women  and  none  in  Auburn.  The  Penitentiary,  Magdalen  and  Bedford 
follow  Probation  in  the  percentage  of  clerical  workers.  Professional 
service  workers  are  found  only  in  Bedford,  Auburn,  the  Magdalen 
and  the  Penitentiary,  the  first  three  being  represented  by  one  case  and 
the  fourth  by  two  cases.  It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  these  two  classes 
of  occtipations  which  require  most  training,  namely,  clerical  work  and 
professional  service,  have  the  smallest  percentage  who  first  went  into 
this  work  in  Auburn,  the  next  larger  percentage  in  the  Workhouse,  the 
next  in  Bedford,  the  Magdalen,  Probation,  and  the  largest  percentage 
in  the  Penitentiary.  Personal  service  workers  constitute  only  a  small 
percentage  of  each  institutional  group  and  the  variations  between  these 
are  not  large.  In  no  group  except  the  Penitentiary  were  there  any 
women  who  first  went  to  work  as  charwomen.  The  miscellaneous 
group  contains  cases  from  all  institutions  in  not  markedly  varying 
percentages.  It  is  particularly  worthy  of  note  that  within  each  group 
the  percentage  who  have  never  worked  is  very  small.  The  Magdalen 
has  no  women  who  have  never  worked,  while  the  other  five  groups  havQ 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        315 

percentages  ranging  from  3.0  to  5.1  per  cent.  In  our  total  group  of 
cases,  we  may  note  that  the  largest  percentage,  38.5,  went  first  into 
housework,  and  that  the  next  largest  percentage  was  engaged  first  in 
factory  work.  The  other  occupations  have  very  much  smaller  per- 
centages. 

(2)  Kind  of  Work  in  Latest  Job. — If  we  compare  Table  108  with 
the  foregoing  table,  we  will  note  that  in  each  of  the  institutional 
groups,  except  Probation,  the  percentage  of  domestic  service  workers 
is  still  highest,  but  that  in  all  the  groups  except  the  Magdalen  and  Peni- 
tentiary there  seems  to  be  a  slight  decrease  in  the  percentage  of  domes- 
tic service  workers  in  the  latest  job.  The  factory  workers  have  in- 
creased, on  the  other  hand,  in  the  percentage  found  in  Bedford,  Mag- 
dalen and  the  Workhouse,  but  have  decreased  rather  noticeably  in 
Auburn  and  the  Penitentiary.  These  two  latter  institutions,  however, 
have  increased  in  the  numbers  found  in  the  group  of  home  workers,  and 
this  is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  a  large  percentage  of  these  women 
are  married  and  have  a  tendency,  where  it  is  necessary  for  them  to  help 


TABLE  108 

KIND  OF  WORK  IN  LATEST  JOB 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 
(Includes  only  those  who  have  had  more  than  one  job.) 


Institutional  Groups 

Kind  of  Work 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

Domestic 

35.5 

36.6 

43.8 

9.6 

13.7 

12.3 

2.7 
1.4 
2.7 
1.4 
4.1 
1.4 
1.4 

38.7 

40.3 
1.6 

9.7 
3.2 
4.8 
1.6 

39.4 
16.0 

5.3 
8.5 
9.6 
4.3 
3.2 

'3^2 
5.3 
1.1 

37.4 
17.2 
5.1 
20.2 
6.1 
3.0 
1.0 

'2^0 
2.0 
1.0 

15.7 

28.9 
6.0 
8.4 

13.3 
8.4 
9.6 

'4.'8 

'l'2 

34  9 

Factory  Work 

24  2 

Home  Work 

5  2 

Restaurant  and  Hotel  Work .  .  . 

Work  in  Stores 

Vaudeville  Performers 

6.5 
6.5 
4.3 
1.1 
1.1 
1.1 
2.2 
2.2 

11.1 
7.1 
4  4 

Clerical  Work 

3  2 

Professional  Service 

4 

Personal  Service 

2  6 

Charwomen 

2  0 

Miscellaneous 

1.2 

Never  Worked 

3.2 

5.5 

4.3 

5.1 

3.6 

3.8 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

93 

73 

62 

94 

99 

83 

504 

316    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

piece  out  the  family  income,  to  do  work  which  will  not  take  them  away 
from  home.  Restaurant  and  hotel  workers,  it  will  be  noted,  have  in- 
creased in  each  institutional  group,  while  workers  in  stores  have  de- 
creased in  each  group  except  the  Penitentiary.  Vaudeville  performers 
have  increased  in  each  group  except  the  Workhouse.  The  clerical  work- 
ers have  decreased  in  percentage  in  each  of  the  groups  except  Auburn 
and  Probation,  in  each  of  which  there  is  a  slight  increase.  In  the  same 
way,  the  professional  service  workers  entirely  drop  out  of  all  groups 
except  Bedford  and  Auburn,  which  have  the  same  number  of  cases 
doing  professional  service  in  the  latest  job  as  in  the  first  job.  Personal 
service  remains  nearly  unchanged  and  the  number  of  charwomen  in- 
creases only  slightly  in  each  group.  The  miscellaneous  workers  remain 
practically  the  same.  In  the  total  group  it  is  of  interest  to  note  that 
there  is  not  a  striking  change  from  the  first  to  the  latest  jobs  in  the 
kind  of  work  done.  There  is  a  slight  decrease  in  the  number  of  do- 
mestic service  and  factory  workers  and  very  slight  increases  in  several 
of  the  other  groups.  The  significant  thing  in  the  comparison  seems  to 
be  that  there  is  so  little  change  and  that  there  seems  to  be  a  marked 
tendency  for  these  women  to  keep  within  somewhat  the  same  kind  of 
work  so  far  as  can  be  judged  by  the  first  and  latest  jobs. 

(3)  Kind  of  Work  at  First  Comnction. — If  we  observe  the  kind  of 
work  done  at  time  of  the  first  conviction  as  given  in  Table  109,  we 
may  note  first  the  very  large  percentages  in  each  institutional  group 
who  were  idle  at  the  time  of  first  conviction.  "Idle"  does  not  include 
those  who  were  at  home  doing  the  work  either  in  their  own  or  their 
parents'  homes.  Such  cases  are  included  under  "Own  housework." 
Those  who  have  never  worked  might,  it  is  true,  be  added  either  to  the 
"Idle"  or  "Own  housework"'  group  in  this  table,  but  have  been  kept 
separate  so  that  they  may  show  as  a  constant  group  in  the  later  tables 
dealing  with  kind  of  work  at  specified  times.  Because  such  a  large 
percentage  w^ere  idle  at  this  time,  the  numbers  in  many  of  the  occupa- 
tions are  smaller  than  in  the  two  previous  tables.  Domestic  service 
still  keeps  first  place  in  all  except  the  Probation  group.  The  factory 
workers  have  decreased  in  numbers  perceptibly  and  are  much  smaller' 
in  proportion  to  the  domestic  service  workers  than  in  either  the  first 
or  latest  jobs,  previously  considered.  Home  work  remains  the  same 
for  the  total  group  as  in  the  first  job,  but  in  the  institutional  groups 
Auburn  alone  stands  out  as  having  a  larger  percentage  of  home  workers 
than  was  found  in  a  consideration  of  the  first  job.  The  restaurant  and 
hotel  workers,  workers  in  stores,  and  vaudeville  performers  have  de- 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        317 


creased  markedly  from  the  first  job.  Only  two  women  were  doing 
clerical  work  at  the  time  of  first  conviction,  while  there  were  twenty 
wdio  had  started  their  first  work  in  a  clerical  job.  The  professional 
service  workers,  also,  have  a  very  small  percentage,  only  two  women 
at  the  time  of  first  conviction.  The  number  of  women  in  each  of  the 
other  three  groups  are  also  smaller  at  time  of  the  first  conviction  than 
in  the  first  job. 

TABLE  109 

KIND  OF  WORK  AT  TIME  OF  FIRST  CONVICTION 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Kind  of  Work 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

Domestic  Service 

18.8 
12.9 

20.8 
1.4 

13.9 
1.4 
1.4 

1^4 

4.2 

8.8 
5.9 

1^5 
2.9 
1.5 

10.0 
2.2 
2.2 
1.1 
1.1 

ri 
1.1 
1.1 

2.2 
1.1 

4.8 
1.6 
3.2 
3.2 

I'o 

2.3 
5.7 
1.1 

1^1 
1.1 

1^1 

11   2 

Factory  Work 

5  4 

Home  Work 

3  1 

Restaurant  and  Hotel  Work .  .  . 
Work  in  Stores 

3.0 
2.0 
1.0 

1.7 
1  3 

Vaudeville  Performers 

8 

Clerical  Work 

4 

Professional  Service 

Personal  Service 

.4 
1.0 

Charwomen 

4 

Miscellaneous 

4 

Own  Housework .... 

5.0 

54.4 

3.0 

25.0 

25.0 

5.6 

10.3 
69.1 

8.9 
63.7 

4.4 

'   3.2 

72.6 

8.1 

9.1 

75.0 

3.4 

10  0 

Idle 

59  9 

Never  Worked 

4  0 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

101 

72 

68 

90 

62 

88 

481 

(4)  Kind  of  Work  at  Present  Conznction. — The  following  table 
(Table  110)  is  of  more  interest  if  taken  in  connection  with  Table  109. 
Again,  the  percentage  of  idle  persons  is  the  most  striking  thing  in  the 
table ;  though  when  compared  with  the  percentage  of  idle  women  at 
time  of  first  conviction  it  is  seen  to  be  somewhat  smaller.  From  these 
two  tables  it  would  seem  obvious  that  the  factor  of  unemployment  has 
an  important  relation  to  the  problem  of  delinquency.  It  is  difficult 
even  to  estimate  how  much  of  this  unemployment  was  unnecessary 
since  there  is  no  way  of  satisfactorily  verifying  attempts  to   obtain 


318     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

work.  It  seems  probable,  however,  from  the  statements  of  the  women, 
and  from  a  survey  of  industrial  conditions  in  New  York  City  during 
the  time  that  the  present  convictions  occurred,  that  there  would  have 
been  no  particular  difficulty  for  many  of  the  women  who  were  idle  to 
have  obtained  work. 


TABLE  110 

KIND  OF  WORK  AT  TIME  OF  PRESENT  CONVICTION 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Kind  of  Work 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

Domestic  Service 

Factory  Work 

14.9 
10.9 

19.5 
1.3 

11.7 
2.6 
1.3 

I's 

3.9 

10 
6 

1 

1 

7 

7 

3 
3 

17.5 
1.0 
1.0 
1.9 
1.0 

I'o 

1.0 
1.9 
1.9 
2.9 

11.2 
4.1 
4.1 
4.1 
1.0 
2.0 

l^O 

i^o 

4.5 
3.4 
1.1 

i^i 

1.1 
I'l 

13.1 
4.6 

Home  Work 

2.8 

Restaurant  and  Hotel  Work .  .  . 
Work  in  Stores 

2.0 

2.0 

.7 

Vaudeville  Performers 

2.0 

.9 

Clerical  Work  .          

.4 

Professional  Service 

1.0 

.4 

Personal  Service 

1.3 

Charwomen 

.4 

Miscellaneous 

.7 

Own  housework 

13.9 

53.5 

3.0 

23.4 

29.9 

5.2 

16.0 
64.0 

13.6 

51.5 

3.9 

10.2 

56.1 

5.1 

14.6 

69.7 
3.4 

14.9 

Idle..... 

Never  Worked 

54.3 
3.5 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

101 

77 

75 

103 

98 

89 

543 

(5)  Prevailing  Work. — ^The  prevailing  work  of  these  women  repre- 
sents the  occupations  in  which  they  have  been  engaged  for  the  longest 
time.  We  have  divided  the  work  histories  of  the  women  in  our  group 
into  three  classes,  (1)  those  who  have  done  only  one  kind  of  work, 
(2)  those  who  have  done  one  kind  of  work  almost  entirely  with  per- 
haps one  or  two  jobs  in  other  occupations,  and  (3)  those  who  have 
had  variable  records,  now  in  one  kind  of  work,  now  in  another,  but 
with  one  kind  of  work  which  might  be  called  prevailing  because  the 
subject  had  worked  longer  in  that  occupation  than  in  any  other.  By 
combining  the  first  two  classes  we  cover  71.3  per  cent  of  our  cases. 
The  third  group  was  also  used  in  considering  prevailing  work  so  that 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        319 

the  total  number  of  cases  could  be  used.  The  prevailing  work  of  this 
third  group  always  represented  the  longest  number  of  months  of  work/ 
Table  111  shows  that  in  each  group,  except  Probation,  the  domestic 
service  workers  have  the  highest  percentage.  The  other  workers  run  in 
very  much  the  same  proportions  as  for  the  work  in  the  first  job.  The 
comparison  of  these  two  tables  indicates  that,  for  the  most  part,  there 
is  little  change  in  kind  of  work  in  the  first  job  and  kind  of  work  done 
later.     There  is  a  slight  tendency  toward  a  smaller  percentage  of  do- 

''The  few   following  examples   from   the   Bedford  group   may  serve  to  indi- 
cate how  the  work  records  vary  in  the  kind  of  work  done. 

Class  1. — Those  working  in  only  one  occupation. 

a)  Woman  now  29  years,   10  months.     Began  work  at   15.     Singing  and 

dancing  in  vaudeville  performances  from  1901-1912.     Was  forced  to 
leave  because  she  was  using  drugs.     Has  done  no  other  work. 

b)  Woman  now  26  years,   10  months.     Began  work  at   15.     She  had   13 

jobs,  all  housework,  covering  a  work  period  of  6  years. 

Class  2. — Almost  entirely  one  kind  of  work,  with  a  few  exceptions. 

a)  Girl  16  years,  9  months.     Began  work  at  15. 

1)  Housework,  4  mos. 

2)  Housework,  4  wks. 

3)  Housework,  8  mos. 

4)  Helper  in  hotel  dining  room,  7  wks. 

5)  Housework,  2  wks. 

6)  Cigar-making,  3  wks. 

7)  Housework,  1  wk. 

b)  Colored  woman  23  years,  8  months.     Began  work  at  8  years. 

1)  Nursegirl,  1  yr. 

2)  Housework,  2j^  yrs. 

3)  Housework,   3  yrs. 

4)  Housework,  2  yrs. 

5)  Waitress,  3  mos. 

6)  Housework,  1  yr. 

7)  Housework,  1  yr. 

8)  Housework,  1  yr. 

9)  Waitress,  1  yr. 

Class  3. — Those  with  variable  records. 

a)  Woman   22)   years,   2    months.     Began    work   at    17   years.     Prevailing 
work — saleslady  in  a  store. 

1)  Saleslady  in  store,  1  yr. 

2)  Home  work  from  embroidery  factory,  6  mos. 

3)  Served  milk  in  milk  station,  4  mos. 

4)  Housework,  2  mos. 

5)  Saleslady  in  store,  3  mos. 

b)  Girl,   18  years,  5   mos.     Began  work  at   15.     Prevailing  work — sorting 
paper  in  paper  mill. 

1)  Housework — nursegirl,  2  wks. 

2)  Sorting  paper  in  paper  mill,  1  yr. 

3)  Banding  cigars  in  cigar  factory,  3  mos. 

4)  Feeder  on   forming  machine  in   hat   factory,  3  mos. 

5)  Banding  cigars  in  cigar  factory,  1  wk. 


320     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

TABLE  111 

PREVAILING  KIND  CF  WORK 
Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Kind  of  Work 

Bed- 
ford 

Aubum 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
hou.se 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

Domestic  Service 

47.5 
30.7 

43.4 
14.5 
13.2 
5.3 
4.0 
1.3 
2.6 
1.3 
5.3 
1.3 
2.6 

38.0 
32.5 

2.8 

5.6 

11.3 

2.8 
4.2 

'2^8 

41.6 
24.8 
2.0 
5.9 
5.9 
4.0 
3.0 
2.0 
3.0 
2.0 
2.0 

48.2 
8.4 
7.2 
8.4 

10.8 
4.8 
1.2 

'2;4 

'2A 

22.4 
30.6 
3.5 
8.2 
11.8 
7.1 
7.1 

'4^7 

'i;2 

40  4 

F'actory  Work 

23  8 

Home  Work 

4  5 

Restaurant  and  Hotel  W^ork .  .  . 

Work  in  Stores 

Vaudeville  Performers 

3.0 
8.9 
3.0 
1.0 
1.0 
1.0 

6.0 
8.7 
3  9 

Clerical  \\'ork 

3  1 

Professional  Service 

8 

Personal  Service 

Charwomer^ 

3.1 
.6 

Miscellaneous 

1.0 

1.6 

Never  Worked 

3.0 

5.3 

4.0 

6.0 

3.5 

3.7 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

101 

76 

71 

101 

83 

85 

517 

niestic  service  workers  in  the  first  job  than  in  the  prevailing  work,  and 
there  is  a  corresponding  increase  for  factory  workers. 

(c)  Comparison  of  Prevailing  JVork  of  Delinquents  and  General 

Population 

A  comparison  at  this  point  of  the  prevailing  work  of  the  delinquent 
women  in  this  study  with  the  kind  of  work  done  by  females  over  15 
years  of  age  in  New  York  State  as  compiled  in  the  1910  census®  shows 
that  there  are  various  differences  in  kind  of  occupations  between  the 
two  groups  (see  Chart  XVIII).  The  delinquent  women  have  42.0  per 
cent  of  their  number  domestic  service  workers,  which  is  18.3  per  cent 
more  than  we  find  in  the  general  population.  There  is  also  a  larger 
percentage  of  factory  workers,  restaurant  and  hotel  workers  and  vaude- 
ville performers  among  the  delinquents  than  among  the  general  popu- 
lation. The  vaudeville  performers  furnish  to  the  whole  group  of  de- 
linquents eight  times  their  proportional  representation  in  the  general 
population.     It  seems  probable  that  with  this  group  of  women  the 

'  Op.  cit.,  p.  574. 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        321 

nature  of  the  work  is  to  a  large  extent  an  important  factor  in  the  de- 
linquency. A  traveling  vaudeville  company  where  the  girl  is  thrown 
into  contact  with  many  people  and  many  kinds  of  men,  where  there 
is  little  privacy  and  innumerable  opportunities  to  earn  money  "on  the 
side,"  affords  ample  chance  for  sexual  irregularities.  The  occupations 
in  which  the  delinquents  have  less  than  their  expected  percentages  are 
among  those  doing  home  work,  work  in  stores,  and  more  especially 
among  clerical  workers  and  those  in  professional  service.  The  clerical 
workers  in  this  study  furnish  less  than  one-quarter  of  their  quota  in 
the  general  population,  while  the  professional  service  workers  furnish 


PER  CENT 
40  60 


DOMESTIC  SERVICE 


FACTORY  WORK 


HOME  WORK 


RESTAURANT&HOTELWORK 


WORK  IN  STORES 


VAUDEVILLE  PERFORMERS 


CLERICAL  WORK 


PROFESSIONAL  SERVICE 


PERSONAL  SERVICE 


CHARWOMEN 


MISCELLANEOUS 


b 


^^■B     DELINQUENT  WOMEN 

I  I    FEMALES  OVER  15  IN  N.  Y.  STATE 

Chart  XVIII 

Percentage  Comparison  Showing  Prevailing  Kind  of  Work  of  517  Women 
DeHnquents  in  New  York  State,  and  Kind  of  Work  Done  by  Females  over 
JS  Years  of  Age  in  New  York  State,  as  Compiled  in  the  1910  Census. 


322    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

less  than  one-ninth  of  what  we  might  expect.  The  last  three  groups 
of  personal  service  workers,  charwomen  and  miscellaneous  also  have 
less  than  their  expected  representation.  The  largest  differences,  there- 
fore, are  as  follows :  with  the  exception  of  vaudeville  performers  who 
work  under  especially  bad  conditions,  the  delinquents  have  a  larger 
representation  than  we  should  expect  among  the  occupations  which  are 
comparatively  unskilled,  principally  domestic  service  and,  to  a  lesser 
degree,  factory  work,  while  they  have  a  smaller  percentage  than  the 
general  population  in  occupations  which  require  special  training,  such 
as  clerical  work  and  professional  service.® 

At  this  point  we  might  observe  the  comparisons  made  between  the 
occupations  of  a  group  of  3,229  women  offenders  in  six  states  and  the 
total  female  population  sixteen  years  of  age  and  over  in  the  United 
States.  In  this  study  made  by  Miss  Mary  Conyngton  in  1911  on  the 
"Relations  between  Occupation  and  Criminality  of  Women" "  she 
found  in  comparing  the  delinquents  with  the  total  female  wage-earners 
sixteen  years  of  age  and  over  that  "by  far  the  largest  proportion  of 
offenders  comes  from  the  group  engaged  in  domestic  and  personal  serv- 
ice, and  that  the  only  subdivision  under  this  general  head  furnishing 
more  than  its  proportionate  share  of  misdemeanants  or  criminals  is 
that  of  servants  and  waiters.  .  .  .  These  workers,  constituting  24.1 
per  cent  of  the  breadwinners,  account  for  70.3  per  cent  of  the  offenders, 
or  very  nearly  three  times  their  proportionate  share.  .  .  .  With  prac- 
tically the  same  number  in  each  group,  the  servants  and  waitresses 
furnish  more  than  four  times  as  many  offenders  as  those  engaged  in 
manufacturing  and  mechanical  pursuits."  In  referring  to  a  group 
called  "trade  and  transportation"  in  the  Census  classification,  and  in- 
cluding in  Miss  Conyngton's  study  cash  girls,  bookkeepers,  clerks, 
saleswomen,  stenographers,  and  telephone  operators,  she  finds  that  this 
group  of  workers  "furnish  to  the  whole  group  of  offenders  studied 
only  one-third  of  their  proportionate  representation.  And  this  strik- 
ing fact  becomes  even  more  striking  when  it  is  remembered  that  the 
investigation  was  carried  on  chiefly  in  industrial  centers,  where  workers 

'We  recognize  that  the  two  groups  of  facts  are  not  on  exactly  the  same 
hasis  for  comparison.  That  is,  while  the  Census  figures  apply  to  women  work- 
ing in  given  occupations  at  a  certain  time,  the  prevailing  work  used  here  may 
apply  to  many  work  records  of  years  past  and,  at  best,  it  covers  a  period  of 
time  for  each  statement  of  prevailing  work. 

"  "Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-earners  in  the  United 
States,"  Vol.  XV.  "Relation  between  Occupation  and  Criminality  of  Women." 
By  Mary  Conyngton.     Government  Printing  Office,  Washington,  1911.     p.  30. 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        323 

of   this   kind   are   most   numerous   and   where   their   temptations   are 
greatest." 

It  is  not  easy  to  say  whether  this  unduly  large  percentage  of  domes- 
tic service  workers  among  the  delinquent  group  is,  in  any  sense,  a  re- 
sult of  the  occupational  influences,  or  whether  those  who  go  into  do- 
mestic service  represent  the  great  mass  of  unskilled,  untrained  women, 
from  which  the  most  of  our  delinquents  are  drawn.  It  is  true  that  the 
domestic  service  workers  in  our  group  have  not  gone  so  far  in  school 
as  women  in  other  occupations.  This  is  indicated  in  Tables  131  and 
132,  which  show  that  for  the  domestic  service  workers  the  average 
grade  finished  is  4.16±2.48,  while  for  those  in  occupations  other  than 
domestic  service  the  average  grade  is  5.03 ±2.56.  A  later  chapter^^ 
shows  that  the  domestic  service  workers  are  also  of  lower  average 
mentality  than  the  group  of  women  in  occupations  other  than  domes- 
tic service.  From  our  observation,  we  are  inclined  to  think  that  the 
inherent  conditions  of  work  surrounding  many  of  the  young,  inexperi- 
enced girls  who  go  into  housework  may  be  responsible,  to  a  small  ex- 
tent, for  their  delinquency,  but  that  the  occupational  influences  for 
the  most  part  are  secondary  rather  than  direct  causes  of  delinquency. 
It  is  true  that  in  housework  there  is  not  the  careful  supei*vision  which 
many  factories,  oflices,  shops  and  stores  give,  that  there  is  opportunity 
for  petty  thieving  with  little  danger  of  being  caught,  and  in  many  in- 
stances the  opportunity  for  meeting  men,  such  as  tradesmen,  in  an  inti- 
mate way  which  may  lead  to  sexual  irregularities.  Making  allowances 
for  these  difficulties  in  domestic  sen'ice  work  which,  without  doubt, 
affect  a  large  number  of  the  delinquent  group,  we  believe  that  the  more 
important  phase  of  the  question  to  be  stressed  is  that  a  large  propor- 
tion of  those  in  our  group  going  into  domestic  service  are  the  untrained 
women  of  somewhat  lower  mentality,  often  impressionable  and  easily 
influenced.^- 

"^  See  Chapter  XV,  p.  503. 

^"  A  case  of  interest  at  this  point  is  that  of  a  young  Hungarian  girl  com- 
mitted to  Bedford  for  petit  larceny.  She  was  stupid,  unattractive  physically, 
and  in  addition  had  very  poor  eyesight  which  her  brother  told  her  would  ulti- 
mately make  her  blind.  She  became  infatuated  with  a  negro  man  who  was  at- 
tentive to  her,  and  who,  it  is  thought,  finally  persuaded  her  to  steal  a  diamond 
ring  from  her  employer  for  whom  she  had  been  doing  housework  about  three 
months.  Her  excuse  was  that  the  employer  "had  lots, — rings  and  jewels  and 
things,  and  I  had  nothing."  She  wanted  to  make  herself  look  beautiful,  she 
wanted  to  please  the  negro,  the  only  man  who  had  ever  paid  any  attention  to 
her,  and  she  was  too  stupid  to  realize  that  the  theft  as  she  committed  it  would 
surely  lead  to  her  being  caught. 


324     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 
Dr.  Davis  in  a  study  of  prostitutes  at  Bedford  writes: 

"Almost  all  the  studies  of  prostitution  heretofore  made  have  noted  the 
high  percentage  of  women  who  were  engaged  in  domestic  service  previous 
to  entering  the  life.  So  far  as  my  observation  goes,  I  do  not  believe  that 
this  indicates  any  greater  danger  from  domestic  service  itself  as  an  occupa- 
tion than  from  any  other  in  which  unskilled  girls  engage.  Domestic  service 
for  women  under  existing  economic  conditions  corresponds  to  casual  labor 
for  men.  It  is  the  job  where  training  and  experience  are  unnecessary  in 
order  to  find  work.  Such  services  would  not  be  desired  by  families  where 
efficiency  is  demanded  and  paid  for.  A  very  large  proportion  of  our  girls 
were  not  competent  workers  but  were  girls  employed  in  the  lowest  stratum 
of  families  that  employ  domestic  help  at  all  and  where  standards  of  service 
do  not  exist.  This  group  includes  almost  all  the  colored  girls  and  a  con- 
siderable number  of  the  foreign-born  white  girls."  ^^ 

While  we  are  indicating  the  prevailing  work  among  the  institu- 
tional groups,  it  may  also  be  advisable  to  show  the  prevailing  work 
among  nativity  and  color  groups.  Table  112  gives  us  this  information 
and  shows  that  the  native  colored  have  over  80.2  per  cent  of  their 
number  engaged  in  domestic  service,  while  only  26.7  per  cent  of  the 
native  white  were  so  engaged.  The  total  foreign  stand  between 
these  two  groups  with  a  percentage  slightly  higher  than  the  per- 
centage of  domestic  service  workers  for  the  total  group.  The  per- 
centage of  factory  workers,  again,  is  less  in  the  foreign  born  and  native 
colored  groups  than  among  the  native  white,  though  very  much  less 
in  the  native  colored.  It  seems  very  likely  that  the  percentages  in  the 
Magdalen  group  in  Table  111  have  been  affected  by  the  fact  that  there 
are  no  colored  women  in  the  Magdalen  and  that  there  is,  therefore, 
a  tendency  for  the  percentage  of  domestic  service  workers  to  be  less 
and  for  the  factory  workers  to  have  a  slightly  larger  number  than  the 
same  occupations  in  the  other  institutional  groups.  The  Probation 
group  which  has  a  small  percentage  of  colored  is  also  undoubtedly 
affected  in  the  same  way.  It  will  be  noted  that  the  colored  have  no 
representative  in  the  professional  service  class  and  one  only  among 
the  clerical  workers.  The  foreign  born  also  have  only  one  professional 
woman  and  three  clerical  workers,  while  the  native  white  have  one 
professional  woman  and  four  clerical  workers. 

"  Op.  cit.,  p.  175. 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY       325 


TABLE  112 

PREVAILING  KIND  OF  WORK 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  Classified  by  Nativity 

and  Color 


Nativity  and  Color 

Kind  of  Work 

Total 
Foreign  Born 

Total 
Native  Born 

Native 
White 

Native 
Colored 

Total 

Domestic  Service 

Factory  Work 

Home  Work 

45.0 

21.9 

6.6 

8.6 
6.6 
1.3 

2.0 

.7 
4.6 

.7 
2.0 

40.8 

25.7 

3.8 

5.2 

10.1 

5.2 

3.8 

.9 
2.6 

.6 
1.5 

26.7 
32.9 

4.7 

5.9 
12.9 
5.9 
4.7 
1.2 
3.1 
.4 
1.6 

80.2 
5.5 
1.1 

3.3 
2.2 
3.3 
1.1 

1.1 
1.1 

42.1 

24.6 

4.6 

Restaurant  and  Hotel 

Work 

Work  in  Stores 

Vaudeville  Performers. 

Clerical  Work 

Professional  Service . . . 

Personal  Service 

Charwomen 

Miscellaneous 

6.2 
9.1 
4.0 
3.2 

.8 
3.2 

.6 
1.6 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

151 

346 

255 

91 

497 

The  trend  of  change  of  work  at  various  times  in  the  work  histories 
may  be  shown  by  combining  the  preceding  tables.  Table  113  shows 
the  predominance  of  domestic  service  workers  at  all  times,  and  the 
small  percentage  throughout  of  workers  in  the  more  skilled  occupa- 
tions of  clerical  v/ork  and  professional  service.  An  increase  in  domes- 
tic service  workers  is  shown  between  the  first  job  and  the  prevailing 
work,  while  there  is  a  decrease  of  factory  workers.  The  markedly 
high  percentage  of  idle  women  at  the  time  of  conviction,  both  first 
and  present,  is  of  greatest  significance  and  would  bear  a  much  closer 
study  of  the  causes  of  unemployment. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  a  similar  tendency  was  noted  in  a 
study  of  male  felons  made  by  Dr.  Glueck  in  Sing  Sing  Prison.^*  In 
a  discussion  of  the  defective  group,  he  notes  that  57.1  per  cent  were 
unemployed  at  time  of  present  conviction,  39.6  per  cent  of  the  psycho- 
pathic group  were  unemployed  and  50  per  cent  of  the  Russian  group 
were  "unemployed  at  the  time  of  the  crime  although  56.8  per  cent  were 
skilled  mechanics."    We  do  not  find,  however,  with  our  group  of  de- 

"O/).  cit.,  pp.  112,  123,  131  and  138. 


326    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

linquent  women  as  he  did  with  male  felons  that  "there  seems  to  be  a 
certain  correlation  between  the  degree  of  recidivism  in  a  given  group 
and  the  extent  of  unemployment  at  the  time  of  the  commission  of  the 
crime."  From  Tables  109  and  110,  it  is  seen  that  the  Probation  group 
which  has  the  smallest  average  number  of  convictions  has  in  each  case 
the  highest  percentage  of  idle  women.  Aside  from  this  point,  how- 
ever, the  fact  of  there  being  such  a  large  percentage  out  of  work  at 
the  time  of  conviction,  among  male  criminals  as  well  as  among  our 
delinquent  groups,  is  of  great  importance. 

Again,  in  Miss  Conyngton's  study, ^^  she  found  that  between  the 
earliest  occupation  and  the  occupation  at  latest  arrest : 

"The  most  significant  changes  are  those  which  have  taken  place  not  be- 
tween the  great  industrial  groups,  but  from  them  into  the  non-gainful  pur- 
suits. ...  It  will  be  noticed  that  each  of  the  groups  of  gainful  occupations 
diminishes,  and  that  the  increase  is  wholly  among  those  who  are  either 
married  and  keeping  house,  or  who  have  no  lawful  pursuit.  It  is  rather 
curious  to  find  these  two  groups  at  the  time  of  the  latest  arrest  so  exactly 
the  same  in  number,  but  the  rate  of  increase  has  of  course  been  enormously 
greater  for  those  having  no  occupations  than  for  those  keeping  house." 

In  our  group  of  delinquent  women  we  found  3.5  per  cent  who  had 
never  had  a  "lawful  occupation"  when  we  were  considering  the  kind 
of  work  in  first  job  (Table  113),  while  at  time  of  the  present  convic- 
tion, corresponding  to  "latest  arrest,"  there  were  54.3  per  cent  of  the 
women  idle  and  3.5  per  cent  who  had  never  worked.  This  is  a  very 
much  more  striking  increase  in  those  without  employment  than  Miss 
Conyngton  finds  in  the  percentages  of  0.6  per  cent  who  had  nO'  lawful 
employment  when  the  earliest  employment  was  being  considered,  and 
17.5  per  cent  who  had  no  lawful  pursuit  at  the  time  of  the  latest  arrest, 
but  the  trend  is  in  the  same  direction  in  both  groups.  Also,  the  in- 
vestigation mentioned  was  made  from  institutional  records  which  are 
largely  based  on  the  subject's  statement.  The  percentage  of  idle,  we 
are  convinced  from  our  own  investigations,  is  much  larger  than  the 
women  themselves  are  willing  to  admit. 

(d)  Relationship  Between  Kind  of  Work  and  Grade  Finished 

It  may  be  of  interest,  since  so  large  a  percentage  of  the  delinquent 
women  are  engaged  in  housework,  to  find  the  relationship  between  the 
kind  of  prevailing  work  and  the  grade  finished  in  school  in  order  to 

"  Op.  cit.,  pp.  46-47. 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        327 

TABLE  113 

KIND  OF  WORK  DONE  BY  DELINQUENT  WOMEN  AT  SPECI- 
FIED TIMES  DURING  THEIR  WORK  HISTORIES 

Per  Cent  Distribution  for  Total  Group 


Specified  Times 

Kind  of  Work- 

In  First 
Job 

In  Latest 
Job* 

At  Time  of 

First 
Conviction 

At  Time  of 

Present 
Conviction 

Prevailing 
Work 

Domestic  Service 

Factory  Work 

38.5 

26.9 

3.1 

5.5 
9.9 
2.8 
3.7 
1.1 
2.6 
.4 
2.0 

34.9 

24.2 
5.2 

11.1 
7.1 
4.4 
3.2 
.4 
2.6 
2.0 
1.2 

11.2 
5.4 
3.1 

1.7 
1.3 
.8 
.4 
.4 
1.0 
.4 
.4 

13.1 

4.6 

2.8 

2.0 
.7 
.9 
.4 
.4 

1.3 
.4 
.7 

40.4 

23  8 

Home  Work 

4  5 

Restaurant  and  Hotel 
Work 

6  0 

Work  in  Stores 

"\' audeville  Performers . . 
Clerical  Work 

8.7 
3.9 
3.1 

Professional  Service .... 

Personal  Service 

Charwomen 

Miscellaneous 

.8 
3.1 

.6 
1.6 

Own  Housework 

Idle 

"3;5' 

"S.8 

10.0 

59.9 

4.0 

14.9 

54.3 

3.5 

Never  Worked 

3.7 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

543 

504 

481 

543 

517 

♦Includes  only  those  who  have  had  more  than  one  job. 


determine  whether  women  in  certain  occupations  tend  to  have  had 
more  or  less  education,  and  whether  those  in  domestic  service,  par- 
ticularly, are  characterized  as  is  often  stated  by  reaching  a  much  lower 
grade  than  those  in  other  occupations.  The  correlation  ratio,  showing 
the  differences  in  grade  finished  corresponding  to  differences  in  prevail- 
ing work  (Table  114),  is  .38zt.042.  This  shows  a  fairly  high  relation- 
ship, indicating  that  the  occupational  groups  differ  in  respect  to  school 
attainment.  From  the  means  for  the  grades  we  can  roughly  see  what 
average  attainment  is  characteristic  of  each  occupation.  Charwomen, 
miscellaneous  and  professional  workers  are  too  few  in  number  to  be 
of  any  value  since  so  few  cases  might  easily  have  occurred  by  chance. 
Bearing  in  mind  the  small  numbers,  we  find  that  the  order  of  grade 
reached  by  women  in  stated  occupations,  beginning  with  the  lowest 
grade  and  running  upwards,  is  as  follows : 


328     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


1. 

Charwomen 

7. 

Personal  service 

2. 

Miscellaneous 

8. 

Vaudeville  performers 

3. 

Domestic  service 

9. 

Work  in  stores 

4. 

Home  work 

10. 

Clerical  work 

5. 

Factory   work 

11. 

Professional  service 

6. 

Restaurant  and  hotel  work 

From  this  it  would  seem,  throwing  out  the  first  two,  that  the  do- 
mestic service  workers  have  finished  the  lowest  mean  grade,  4.1,  the 
home  and  factory  workers  the  next  higher  grade,  and  the  clerical 
workers  the  highest  mean  grade  of  significance,  6.5.  The  bulk  of  our 
women,  therefore,  the  domestic  service  and  factory  workers,  fall  in 
the  two  lower  grade  groups,  indicating  that  the  women  who  go  into 
these  occupations  have  not  had  the  educational  advantages  that  some 
of  the  other  occupational  groups  have,  such  as  workers  in  stores, 
clerical  workers,  etc.  We  are  not  justified,  however,  in  assuming  that 
the  fact  of  more  or  less  educational  equipment  is  a  determinant  of 
the  occupation  chosen.  The  crude  relationship,  measured  by  the  ratio 
of  .38,  may  very  probably  be  accounted  for  by  a  basic  relationship  be- 
tween intelligence  and  kind  of  work.  We  shall  see  (p.  501)  that  the 
ratio  of  nature  of  prevailing  work  on  intelligence  (Test  Aggregate)  is 
.46±.043,  and  that  the  correlation  coefficient  of  intelligence  (Test 
Aggregate)  with  grade  finished  is  .75±.034  (see  p.  497).  The  statistical 
data  give  us  no  grounds  for  stating  which  is  the  primary  factor,  in- 
telligence or  education,  but  the  logical  presumption  would  be  in  favor  of 
the  former,  as  a  constitutional  factor  which  might  well  have  affected 
both  the  degree  of  education  and  the  choice  of  a  job. 

WAGE 

The  study  of  wage  is  in  many  ways  the  most  difficult  of  all  occu- 
pational data  to  work  with,  because  of  the  difficulty  in  getting  accurate 
wage  information  either  from  the  subject  or  by  verification,  and  in 
estimating  w^hat  the  living  would  be  in  all  jobs  such  as  domestic  serv- 
ice, practical  nursing,  etc.,  where  living  is  in  addition  to  wage.  Because 
the  time  represented  by  the  first  job  varied  in  individual  cases  by  many 
years,  it  seemed  impossible  to  fix  any  arbitrary  estimate  of  living  which 
would  be  fair  to  all.  A  woman  who  did  housework  ten  years  ago  for 
a  poor  family  in  the  country  for  $3  a  week  would  be  receiving  much 
less  in  monetary  value  than  she  would  be  earning  today  with  the  same 
wage,  if  she  were  working  for  a  wealthy  family  in  the  city,  since  the 
estimate  of  cost  of  living  would  vary  so  between  the  two  times  and 


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330     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

places.  We  have,  therefore,  throughout,  kept  separate  the  wages  of 
those  engaged  in  domestic  service,  including,  in  addition  to  those  doing 
general  housework,  nursegirls,  waitresses  or  cooks  in  private  homes, 
lady's  maids  and  housekeepers.  There  are  also  included  here  two  prac- 
tical nurses  who,  in  addition  to  weekly  wage,  received  living.  All  of 
the  wages  given  for  this  group,  therefore,  are  only  the  money  received 
and  do  not  include  the  allowance  for  maintenance  which  must  be  added 
in  order  to  make  these  wages  comparable  with  the  non-housework 
group.  We  have  presented  percentage  tables  on  the  wage  received  by 
domestic  service  workers  and  those  in  occupations  other  than  domestic 
service,  by  institutional  groups,  for  the  first  and  latest  jobs,  and  at  first 
and  present  conviction.  Although  the  division  of  each  group  into  two 
parts  makes  the  number  of  cases  very  small,  we  have  presented  the 
frequency  tables  on  wage  in  order  to  show  the  composition  of  the 
total  groups,  but  have  made  few  comments  on  the  individual  tables. 

(a)  Wage  Earned  at  Specified  Times 

(1)  Wage  in  First  Job.     If  we  turn  to  the  weekly  wage  earned  in 
the  first  job  by  women  in  domestic  service,  we  will  note  that  for  the 


TABLE  115 

WEEKLY  WAGE  IN  FIRST  JOB 

Per  Cent  Distribution  by  Institutional  Groups  of  Women  Employed 

at   Domestic    Service    and    Allied    Occupations    Where 

Living  Was  in  Addition  to  Wage 


Institutional  Groups 

Weekly  Wage 

in 

Total 

First  Job 

Peni- 

Work- 

Plus Living 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

tentiary 

house 

Probation 

Living  only .... 

17.1 

29.6 

11.1 

6.7 

18.8 

15.6 

$1  to  $2 

19.5 

7.4 

5.6 

13.3 

9.4 

11.3 

2    "      3 

26.8 

18.5 

27.8 

40.0 

12.5 

25.6 

25.0 

3    "      4 

12.2 

25.9 

38.9 

6.7 

21.9 

41.7 

20.6 

4    "      5 

19.5 

11.1 

5.6 

23.3 

21.9 

16.7 

17.5 

5    "     6 

7.4 

11. L 

3.3 

6.3 

8.3 

5.0 

6    "     7 

2.4 

8.3 

1.3 

7    "     8 

2.4 

3.1 

1.3 

8    "     9 

3.1 

.6 

9    "    10 

6.7 

3.1 

1.9 

Total .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

41 

27 

IS 

30 

32 

12 

160 

OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        331 


TABLE  116 

WEEKLY  WAGE  IN  FIRST  JOB 

Per  Cent  Distribution  by  Institutional  Groups  of  Women  Employed  at 
Occupations  other  than  Domestic  Service 


Institutional  Groups 

Weekly  Wage 

in 

Total 

First  Job 

Peni- 

Work- 

Bedford       A 

uburn 

Magdalen 

tentiary 

house 

Probation 

$0  to  $1 

8.0 

2.0 

5.9 

2.3 

2.5 

1     "       2 

2.0 

5.9 

1.3 

2    "       3 

16.0 

5.4 

5.9 

3.3 

3    "      4 

11.8 

8.0 

21.6 

8.6 

11.8 

ii.6 

12.1 

4    "      5 

17.7 

8.0 

8.1 

6.0 

11.8 

18.6 

12.1 

5    "      6 

23.5         ; 

24.0 

21.6 

10.0 

11.8 

11.6 

16.7 

6    "      7 

17.7 

16.0 

18.9 

16.0 

14.7 

14.0 

16.3 

7    "      8 

5.9 

8.0 

5.4 

14.0 

2.9 

20.9 

10.0 

8    "      9 

11.8 

10.8 

6.0 

8.8 

4.7 

7.5 

9    "    10 

3.9 

4.0 

8.0 

2.9 

2.3 

3.8 

10    "    11 

2.0 

2.7 

4.0 

2.9 

2.3 

2.5 

11    "    12 

2.0 

4.0 

4.0 

1.7 

12    "    13 

4.0 

2.7 

8.0 

5.9 

2.3 

3.8 

13    "    14 

2.7 

2.9 

2.3 

1.3 

15    "    16 

2.0 

4.7 

1.3 

20    "    21 

2.0 

.4 

22    "    23 

2.0 

.4 

24    "    25 

2.9 

.4 

25    "    26 

2.0 

2.0 

2.3 

1.3 

27    "    28 

2.0 

.4 

35    "   36 

2.0 

2.9 

•  •  .  • 

.8 

45    "   46 

2.0 

.4 

Total .  .  . 

100.0        1( 

)0.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

51 

25 

37 

50 

34 

43 

240 

total  group  the  range  is  from  living  only  to  $10  a  week  plus  living. 
The  range  varies,  however,  between  the  groups,  with  Auburn  and 
the  Magdalen  having  the  shortest  range,  the  Penitentiary  and  the 
Workhouse  the  longest.^® 

The  first  wages  in  the  occupations  other  than  domestic  service,  it 
will  be  seen  from  Table  116,  have  a  much  longer  range  than  domestic 
service  wages,  running  up  to  $45  in  the  Penitentiary.  In  this  group 
of  wages  as  well,  the  Penitentiary  and  the  Workhouse  have  the  long- 

"  The  Workhouse  figures  for  wage  are  probably  slightly  higher  in  propor- 
tion to  the  other  groups  because  of  the  fact  that  it  was  practically  impossible 
to  verify  the  most  of  this  information,  making  it  necessary  to  accept  the  subject's 
statement,  which  invariably  tends  to  be  higher. 


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OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY       333 

est  range.     The  mean  wages  for  the  total  groups  will  be  considered 
later. 

It  is  commonly  thought  that  the  child  who  leaves  school  early  and 
goes  directly  to  work,  gets  into  unskilled  work  and  therefore  earns 
less  than  the  child  w^ho  goes  to  school  until  he  has  reached  a  higher 
grade  and  so  stands  a  better  chance  of  getting  into  more  skilled  em- 
ployment. To  determine  whether  there  is  such  a  relationship  in  our 
group  of  women  between  the  grade  finished  and  the  weekly  wage  in  the 
first  job,  the  following  tables  are  presented. 

Table  117  shows  that  for  those  who  first  found  work  in  domestic 
service,  the  mean  grade  finished,  4.10,  has  a  relatively  large  standard 
deviation  of  2.72.  The  average  first  wage  for  those  whose  first  em- 
ployment was  in  domestic  service  is  $3.06±1.93.  The  coefficient  of 
correlation  is  .14±.087  and  the  correlation  ratios  are  .23zb.08  and 
.29±.08.  The  amount  of  relationship,  as  we  might  expect,  is  small 
since  there  is  more  or  less  of  a  standard  wage  for  women  in  domestic 
service  which  tends  to  change  little  even  with  the  worker's  increase 
of  experience  and  years.  The  more  striking  fact  about  the  relation- 
ship is  the  tendency  for  the  women  with  the  least  education  to  earn 
the  smaller  amounts.  Women  who  earn  less  than  two  dollars  a  week 
at  domestic  service  show  a  slightly  earlier  average  grade  at  leaving 
school  than  those  who  earn  more  than  that  amount. 

If  we  turn  to  the  relationship  between  grade  finished  and  wage  in 
the  first  job  where  this  work  was  other  than  housework,  we  find  that 
the  coefficient  of  correlation  is  .17zb.067.  The  regression  of  first  wage 
on  grade,  showing  the  average  change  in  wage  for  changes  in  grade 
moves  in  a  slightly  irregular  but  fairly  consistent  progression.  The 
ratio  of  .29 ±.063  indicates  that  there  is  a  small  relationship  here.  The 
regression  of  grade  on  first  wage,  however,  shows  a  much  more  irregu- 
lar line  of  the  means  for  grade  finished.  The  ratio  of  grade  on  first 
wage,  .19z!i.067,  indicates  a  small  degree  of  relationship  between  first 
wage  and  grade  finished  in  school.  Unlike  the  situation  for  domestic 
workers  the  relationship  between  grade  finished  and  wage  is  more 
apparent  for  those  who  receive  the  higher  wages.  There  seems  to  be 
little  difference  in  the  amount  of  schooling  for  women  receiving  less 
than  nine  dollars  per  week,  but  women  receiving  more  than  nine 
dollars  per  week  show  an  appreciably  higher  average  grade  attainment. 

This  low  relationship  between  extent  of  education  and  first  wage 
is  not  surprising.  On  the  whole,  the  factor  of  education  would  seem 
logically  to  have  less  relationship  to  the  first  wage  than  to  the  later 


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334 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY       335 

earnings,  since  without  special  training  the  majority  of  people  start 
work  with  a  low  wage. 

(2)  Wage  in  Latest  Job.  The  following  tables  on  wage  in  latest 
job  for  the  two  occupational  groups  are  presented  merely  to  show 
the  range  of  wages  .within  the  institutional  groups  and  for  reference. 
The  range  does  not  go  above  that  for  wage  in  first  job  in  any  group 
except  Auburn,  where  one  woman  was  earning  from  fifteen  dollars 
to  sixteen  dollars  a  week  plus  living  in  her  latest  job.  This  woman, 
however,  was  a  midwife  and  might  be  expected  to  have  a  slightly 
higher  wage  than  regular  domestic  service  workers.  The  21.4  per  cent 
in  the  Probation  group  who  received  living  only  is  made  up  of  only 
three  cases,  so  that  the  importance  of  this  percentage  is  lessened  by 
observing:  the  total  number  of  cases. 


TABLE  119 

WEEKLY  WAGE  IN  LATEST  JOB 

Per  Cent  Distribution  by  Institutional  Groups  of  Women  Employed  at 

Domestic  Service  and  Allied  Occupations  Where  Living  Was 

in  Addition  to  Wage 


Weekly  Wage 

Institutional  Groups 

in 
Last  Job 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

Living  only .... 
$1   to     2 

2  "      3 

3  "      4 

4  "      5 

5  "      6 

6  "      7 

7  "      8 

8  "      9 

9  "    10 

15    "    16 

16.7 

6.7 

20  ."O 

33.3 

6.7 

16'7 

20^0 
6.7 
20.0 
20.0 
13.3 
13.3 

'6^7 

8.3 

25^0 
33.3 

s's 

16.7 
8.3 

4.2 

4.2 

4.2 

25.0 

20.8 

20.8 

8.3 

8.3 

'4>2 

'3^6 
17.9 
21.4 
17.9 
21.4 
10.7 

'3^6 
3.6 

21.4 

US 
14.3 
14.3 
21.4 
7.1 
7.1 

8.1 

3.3 
11.4 
20.3 
20.3 
16.3 

8.1 

8.9 
.8 

1.6 
.8 

Total .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

30 

15 

12 

24 

28 

14 

123 

For  the  occupations  other  than  domestic  service,  the  latest  wage 
in  all  of  the  groups  except  the  Penitentiary  has  a  wider  range  than 
the  first  wage,  with  less  massing  around  the  lower  wages.  We  should 
expect  to  find  this  tendency  for  the  beginning  and  end  of  a  work  record 
to  vary  in  wage-earning  ability. 


336    .STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


TABLE  120 

V.rEEKLY  WAGE  IN  LATEST  JOB 

Per  Cent  Distribution  by  Institutional  Groups  of  Women  Employed  at 
Occupations  other  than  Domestic  Service 


Institutional  Groups 

Weekly  Wage 

in 

Total 

Last  Job 

Peni- 

Work- 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

tentiary 

house 

Probation 

$0  to  $1 

.0 

1     ' 

2 

2.1 

2.3 

.8 

2    ' 

3 

2.0 

.... 

2.3 

.8 

3    ' 

4 

7.8 

3 

7 

2.1 

2.3 

2.8 

4    ' 

5 

5.9 

14 

8 

2 

8 

6.3 

4.7 

5.2 

5    ' 

6 

17.7 

14 

8 

16 

7 

6.3 

4.7 

6.4 

10.3 

6    ' 

7 

19.6 

14 

8 

22 

2 

16.7 

23.3 

12.8 

18.3 

7    ' 

8 

9.8 

7 

4 

11 

1 

8.3 

9.3 

19.2 

11.1 

8    ' 

9 

9.8 

11 

1 

10.4 

4.7 

12.8 

8.7 

9    ' 

10 

11.8 

14 

8 

2 

8 

16.7 

18.6 

10.6 

12.7 

10    ' 

11 

3.9 

14 

8 

5 

6 

8.3 

14.0 

8.5 

8.7 

11    ' 

12 

11 

1 

2.3 

4.3 

2.8 

12    ' 

13 

2.0 

3 

7 

i6.4 

4.7 

4.3 

4.4 

13    ' 

14 

2.1 

4.3 

1.2 

14    ' 

15 

2.0 

.4 

15    ' 

16 

2 

8 

2.3 

6.4 

2.0 

16    ' 

17 

2 

8 

2.i 

.8 

17    ' 

18 

2 

8 

.4 

18    ' 

19 

2.1 

4.3 

1.2 

19    ' 

20 

2.1 

.4 

20    ' 

21 

2.0 

2.1 

.8 

23    ' 

24 

2.0 

.4 

25    ' 

26 

2.0 

7 

4 

5 

6 

2.i 

2.3 

2.8 

27    ' 

28 

2.1 

.4 

28    ' 

29 

2.1 

.4 

30    ' 

31 

3 

7 

2 

8 

.8 

31    ' 

32 

2.i 

.4 

32    ' 

33 

2.3 

.4 

65    "    66 

2.0 

.4 

Total .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

51 

27 

36 

48 

43 

47 

252 

OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        337 


(3)  IV age  at  First  Conviction. — The  wage  at  first  conviction  for 
those  engaged  in  domestic  service  is  based  on  44  cases,  with  only  two 
cases  in  the  Probation  group.  It  is  obviously  absurd  to  draw  even 
the  most  general  conclusions  from  so  few  cases  in  the  institutional 
groups.  The  table  shows  a  shorter  range  of  wage  than  the  other 
domestic  service  groups  in  first  and  latest  jobs. 


TABLE  121 

WEEKLY  WAGE  AT  TIME  OF  FIRST  CONVICTION 

Per  Cent  Distribution  by  Institutional  Groups  of  Women  Employed  at 

Domestic  Service  and  Allied  Occupations  Where 

Living  Was  in  Addition  to  Wage 


Institutional  Groups 

Weekly  Wage  at 

Time  of  First 

Total 

Conviction 

Peni- 

Work- 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

tentiary 

house 

Probation 

Living  only .... 

5.0 

25.0 

25.0 

6.8 

$1   to  $2 

15.0 

20.6 

9.1 

2    "      3 

33.3 

50 

.6 

20.0 

50 

0 

50 

0 

20.5 

3    "     4 

20.0 

11.1 

25 

.0 

13.6 

4    "     5 

25.0 

11.1 

20.0 

15.9 

5    "     6 

20.0 

22.2 

40.0 

50 

0 

20.5 

6    "     7 

11.1 

25 

0 

4.6 

7   "     8 

15.0 

6.8 

8    "     9 

.0 

9    "    10 

.0 

15    "    16 

11.1 

2.3 

Total .  . . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

20 

9 

4 

5 

4 

2 

44 

338     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINOUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


The  wage  table  showing  earnings  of  those  in  occupations  other 
than  domestic  service  at  the  time  of  first  conviction  is  based  on  only 
52  cases,  with  so  few  numbers  in  the  institutional  groups  that  again  no 
more  comment  is  justifiable  than  that  there  were  no  women  earning 
under  three  dollars  a  week  and  that  the  range  of  wages  is  shorter  in 
most  of  the  institutional  groups  than  for  the  previous  considerations 
of  non-housework  jobs. 


TABLE  122 

WEEKLY  WAGE  AT  TIME  OF  FIRST  CONVICTION 

Per  Cent  Distribution  by  Institutional  Groups  of  Women  Employed  at 
Occupations  other  than  Domestic  Service 


Weekly  Wage  at 

Institutional  Groups 

Time  of  Firat 
Conviction 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

$0  to   SI 

1  "      2 

2  "      3 

3  "      4 

4  "      5 

5  "      6 

6  "     7 

7  "     8 

8  "     9 

9  "    10 

10    "    11 

14  "    15 

15  "    16 

17    "    18 

20    "    21 

22    "    23 

25    "    26 

30   "   31...... 

.... 

25^6 

25.0 

25.0 

6.3 

"6^3 
6.3 

12 
12 
12 
12 
12 

25 
12 

.5 
.5 
.5 
.5 
.5 

;o 

^5 

25 
25 
12 

12 

12 
i2 

0 
0 
5 

5 

5 
5 

12^5 
25^0 

12.5 
25.0 
12.5 

12'5 

33 
33 
33 

3 
3 
3 

ii^i 
ii^i 

22.2 

ii"i 

22.2 

ii!i 
ii!i 

.0 

.0 

.0 

1.9 

13.5 

15.4 

19.2 

13.5 

3.9 

11.5 

5.8 

1.9 

1.9 

1.9 

3.9 

1.9 

1.9 

1.9 

Total .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

16 

8 

8 

8 

3 

9 

52 

OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY       339 


(4)  Wage  at  Latest  Conviction. — If  we  turn  to  the  wage  at  latest 
conviction  for  the  domestic  service  workers,  we  see  in  Table  123  that 
the  numbers  working  in  domestic  service  at  this  time  are  about  the 
same  as  at  first  conviction,  and  that  the  distribution  of  wages  among 
the  institutional  groups  are  not  radically  different. 


TABLE  123 

WEEKLY  WAGE  AT  TIME  OF  PRESENT  CONVICTION 

Per  Cent  Distribution  by  Institutional  Groups  of  Women  Employed  at 

Domestic  Service  and  Allied  Occupations  Where 

Living  Was  in  Addition  to  Wage 


Weekly  Wage  at 

Institutional  Groups 

Time  of  Last 
Conviction 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

Living  only.  .  .  . 
$1   to  $2 

2  "      3 

3  "      4 

4  "      5 

5  "      6 

6  "      7 

7  "     8 

8  "      9 

9  "    10 

15    "    16 

15.4 
15.4 

15^4 
30.8 

23^1 

25  0 

12 '5 
25.0 
12.5 
12.5 

12'5 

25.0 
50  0 
25'6 

'9^1 

'o'l 

9.1 
36.4 

18.2 
18.2 

42 
14 

28 

i4 

9 
3 

6 
3 

50 

50 

0 
0 

6.7 

6.7 
13.3 
13.3 
13.3 
15.6 
13.3 
13.3 

2.2 
.0 

2.2 

Total .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

13 

8 

4 

11 

7 

2 

45 

340     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


Table  124  shows  the  distribution  of  wages  at  time  of  latest  con- 
viction for  the  57  workers  in  occupations  other  than  domestic  service. 
The  wages  run  higher  than  at  the  time  of  first  conviction  though  the 
cases  at  the  upper  limit  are  scattering. 


TABLE  124 

WEEKLY  WAGE  AT  TIME  OF  PRESENT  CONVICTION 

Per  Cent  Distribution  by  Institutional  Groups  of  Women  Employed  at 
Occupations  other  than  Domestic  Service 


Weekly  Wage  at 

Time  of  Last 

Conviction 


Institutionai,  Groups 


Bedford 


Auburn 


I       Peni- 
Magdalen      tentiarj' 


Work- 
house 


Probation 


Total 


$0  to  $1 

1  ' 

'   2 

2  ' 

'   3 

3  ' 

'   4 

4  ' 

'   5 

5  ' 

'   6 

6  ' 

'   7 

7  ' 

'   8 

8  ' 

'   9 

9  ' 

'  10 

10  ' 

'  11 

11  ' 

'  12 

12  ' 

'  13 

13  • 

•  14 

14  ' 

'  15 

15  ' 

'  16 

17  ' 

'  18 

20  ' 

'  21 

22  ' 

'  23 

25  ' 

'  26 

30  ' 

'  31 

32  ' 

'  33 

65  ' 

'  66 

12 


28.6 
28.6 
14.3 
14.3 


14.3 


Total . 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


.0 

1.8 

1.8 

1.8 

3.5 

8.8 

22.8 

15.8 

3.5 

10.5 

5.3 

1.8 

5.3 


100.0 


Number  of  cases 


13 


11 


11 


57 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        341 

(5)  Average  Wage  for  Prevailing  Work.  If,  instead  of  taking  the 
wage  of  these  women  at  any  specified  time,  we  consider  the  average 
wage  for  the  prevaiHng  work,  we  have  an  index  of  their  general 
earning  capacity.  The  average  .wage  is  obtained  by  allowing  for  the 
time  element — that  is,  making  a  simple  weighted  average  with  the 
length  of  time  in  each  of  the  jobs  in  the  prevailing  work  the  weight. 
The  following  table  shows  that  the  average  weekly  wage  for  domestic 
service  workers  begins  at  living  only  in  all  groups  except  the  Magdalen 
and  runs  to  no  more  than  nine  dollars  in  three  of  the  groups  and  not 
over  seven  dollars  a  week  in  the  other  two.  Living,  of  course,  is  in 
addition  to  these  wages. 

TABLE  125 

Average  Weekly  Wage  for  Prevailing  Work  of  Women  Employed  at 

Domestic  Service  and  Allied  Occupations  where 

Living  was  in  Addition  to  Wage 

Per  Cent  Distribution  by  Institutional  Groups 


Average 

Institutional  Groups 

Weekly  Wage 
plus  Living 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

Living  only.  .  .  . 
$1   to  $2 

2  "      3 

3  "      4 

4  "      5 

5  "      6 

6  "      7 

7  "      8 

8  "      9 

8.7 
15.2 
34.8 

8.7 
19.6 

4.4 

8.7 

11.1 

3.7 
18.5 
29.6 
22.2 
14.8' 

33 '3 
33.3 

27.' 8 
5.6 

3.1- 

6.3 

25.0 

18.8 

25.0 

9.4 

'3'l 
9.4 

5.7 

2.9 
14.3 
20.0 
34.3 
14.3 

5.7 

'2^9 

9.5 

14'3 
9.5 

38.1 
4.8 

19.1 

'4^8 

6.7 

6.2 
24.2 
18.4 
24.2 
11.2 

6.2 
.6 

2.8 

Total .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

46 

27 

18 

32 

35 

21 

179 

The  following  table  (Table  126),  on  the  other  hand,  has  a  much 
longer  range,  from  $1  to  $46,  with  the  Penitentiary  and  the  Workhouse 
having  the  longest  range.  The  Probation  group  has  the  fewest  cases 
in  the  lowest  w^age  groups,  and  has  none  who  have  earned  less  than  $4 
a  week  for  their  average  wage  where  their  prevailing  work  was  in  an 
occupation  other  than  domestic  service. 


342     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


TABLE  126 


Average  Weekly  Wage  for  Prevailing  Work  of  Women  Employed  at 
Occupations  other  than  Domestic  Service 


Per  Cent  Distribution  by  Institutional  Groups 

Institutional  Groups 

Weekly  Wage 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

$1   to  $2 

2  "     3 

3  "     4 

4  "      5 

5  "      6 

6  "      7 

7  "     8 

8  "     9 

9  "    10 

10  "    11 

11  "    12 

12  "    13 

13  "    14 

14  "    15 

15  "    16 

16  "    17 

17  "    18 

19  "    20 

20  "    21 

22    "    23 

24  "    25 

25  "    26 

27  "    28 

28  "    29 

30    "    31 

32    "    33 

35    "    36 

45    "    46 

2.1 

'2.1 

18.8 

18.8 

20.8 

14.6 

6.3 

2.1 

4.2 

2.1 

2.1 

2.1 

2.i 

y.i 

'9 
4 

27 

18 

9 

9 

4 

4 

'9 

'4 

1 
6 
3 
2 

1 
1 
6 

6 

1 
6 

'2 

5 
11 
19 
13. 
16. 

8. 

8. 

2. 

'2. 

'2. 
'2. 

'2. 

8 
6 
1 
4 
9 
7 
3 
3 
8 

8 

8 
8 

8 

'4.4 

4.4 

6.5 

10.9 

15.2 

8,7 
13.0 
6.5 
4.4 
4.4 

'2.'2 

2^2 

'2/2 

'4."4 

'2^2 
2.2 
2.2 

'2^2 
2.2 

i'.i 
10.7 
10.7 

14.3 
7.1 

17.9 
3.6 
7.1 

'3!6 
'3^6 

'3'6 
3.6 

3^6 
3.6 

'4!6 

11.4 

11.4 

25.0 

13.6 

9.1 

4.6 

2  3 

2.3 

2.3 

2^3 

'4^6 
2.3 

'4'6 

.5 

.5 

4.0 

9.4 

14.7 

14.7 

15.6 

10.3 

7.1 

4.5 

1.8 

3.1 

.9 

.5 

1.3 

.5 

.5 

1.3 

.9 

.9 

.5 

3.6 

.5 

.5 

.5 

.5 

.9 

.5 

Total .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

48 

22 

36 

46 

28 

44 

224 

Charts  XlXa  and  XlXb  show  graphically  how  the  average  wage 
for  prevailing  work  varies  between  the  domestic  service  workers  and 
those  in  other  occupations.  The  charts  are  based  on  the  figures  for  the 
total  group,  and  indicate  that  while  the  range  of  wage  for  the  domestic 
service  workers  is  short,  that  for  the  workers  in  other  occupations  is 
very  long,  broken  and  irregular. 

The  preceding  tables  on  wage,  which  have  been  included  largely 
for  reference  to  determine  how  the  total  group  is  made  up,  will  be 


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343 


344     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

TABLE  127 

WEEKLY  WAGE  EARNED  BY  DELINQUENT  WOMEN  AT  SPECI- 
FIED TIMES  DURING  THEIR  WORK  HISTORIES 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Women  Employed  at  Domestic  Service  and 
Allied  Occupations  Where  Living  Was  in  Addition  to  Wage 


Specified  Times 

Weekly  Wage 

In 
First  .Job 

In 
Latest  Job 

At  Time  of 

First 
Conviction 

At  Time  of 

Present 
Conviction 

Prevailing 
Work 

Living  only 

$1   to   $2 

2  "      3 

3  "      4 

4  "      5 

5  "      6 

6  "      7 

7  "      8 

8  "      9 

9  "    10 

15    "    16 

15.6 

11.3 

25.0 

20.6 

17.5 

5.0 

1.3 

1.3 

.6 

1.9 

8.1 

3.3 

11.4 

20,3 

20.3 

16.3 

8.1 

8.9 

.8 

1.6 

.8 

6.8 

9.1 

20.5 

13.6 

15.9 

20.5 

4.6 

6.8 

2^3 

6.7 
6.7 
13.3 
13.3 
13.3 
15.6 
13.3 
13.3 
2.2 

'2^2 

6.7 

6.2 
24.2 
18.4 
24.2 
11.2 

6.2 
.6 

2.8 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

160 

123 

44 

45 

179 

Mean 

2.56 

±.147 

3.94 
±.203 

3.66 

±.384 

4.29 
±.400 

3.25 

(Tm 

+  .131 

(T 

1.85 
±.104 

2.25 
±.143 

2.55 

±.272 

2.68 

±.283 

1.75 

a  a 

+  .109 

of  much  more  interest  if  these  totals  are  combined,  showing  what 
wages  the  women  engaged  in  domestic  service  and  those  in  other  occu- 
pations were  earning  at  specified  times  during  their  work  histories,  and 
for  their  prevailing  work.  Table  127  presents  the  wages  for  women 
in  domestic  service  and  gives  in  addition  to  the  actual  percentages  of 
women  earning  given  wages  the  mean  wage  and  standard  deviation  for 
each  group.  The  mean  wage  in  the  first  job,  $2.56±1.85  is,  it  will 
be  seen,  considerably  less  than  the  mean  wage  in  the  latest  job, 
$3.94rt:2.25.  This  trend  is  in  the  direction  we  should  expect, 
that  one  should  earn  larger  wages  with  increase  of  experience. 
The  comparison  of  the  mean  wage  earned  at  first  conviction  and  in 
the  first  job  indicates  that  these  women  were  earning  more  at  the 
time  of  first  conviction,  though  there  was  a  wider  dispersion  of  wages. 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        345 


TABLE  128 
WEEKLY  WAGE  EARNED  BY  DELINQUENT  WOMEN  AT  SPECI- 
FIED TIMES  DURING  THEIR  WORK  HISTORIES 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Women  Employed  at  Occupations  other  than 

Domestic  Service 


Specified  Times 

Weekly  Wage 

In 

First  Job 

In 

Latest  Job 

At  Time  of 

First 
Conviction 

At  Time  of 

Present 
Conviction 

Prevailing 
Work 

$0  to  $1   

2.5 

1.3 

3.3 

12.1 

12.1 

16.7 

16.3 

10.0 

7.5 

3.8 

2.5 

1.7 

3.8 

1.3 

'l.'3 

"a 

A 

"a 

1.3 

.4 

.4 

".'8 

.8 

2.8 

5.2 

10.3 

18.3 

11.1 

8.7 

12.7 

8.7 

2.8 

4.4 

1.2 

.4 

2.0 

.8 

.4 

1.2 

.4 

.8 

"a 

'2^8 
.4 
.4 
.8 
.4 
.4 

'".4 

1.9 
13.5 
15.4 
19.2 
13.5 

3.9 
11.5 

5.8 

'l'9 
1.9 

'l.'9 

'3'9 
1.9 

1^9 

'i.9 

.... 

'i.'s 

1.8 
1.8 
3.5 

8.8 

22.8 

15.8 

3.5 

10.5 

5  3 

1.8 

5.3 

1.8 

1.8 

1.8 

'i'.s 

1.8 

'i.'s 
'i^s 

'l.'8 
'1^8 

.0 

1  "     2 

2  "     3 

.5 
.5 

3    "      4     

4.0 

4  "      5 

5  "     6 

6  "     7 

9.4 

14.7 
14.7 

7    "     8 

15.6 

8  "     9 

9  "    10 

10.3 
7.1 

10    "    11 

4.5 

11    "    12 

1.8 

12    "    13     

3.1 

13    "    14 

.9 

14  "    15 

15  "    16     

.5 
1.3 

16    "    17 

.5 

17    "    18 

.5 

18    "    19 

.0 

19    "   20     

1.3 

^0    "    21 

.9 

22    "    23 

.9 

23    "    24 

.0 

24    "    25     

.5 

25    "    26 

3.6 

27    "    28 

.5 

28    "    29 

.5 

30    "   31 

.5 

31    "    32 

.0 

32    "   33 

.5 

35    "    36 

.9 

45    "    46 

.5 

65    "    66 

.0 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

240 

252 

52 

57 

224 

Mean 

6.78 
+  .356 

9.17 
±.409 

8.52 
±.789 

10.2 
±1.26 

8.90 

(Tax 

+  .441 

a 

5.51 
±.251 

6.495 
±.0837 

5.69 

±.558 

9.54 
±.893 

6.60 

a  a 

+  .312 

346     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  a  very  large  percentage  of 
women  who  were  included  in  the  wage  table  for  the  first  job  were  not 
working  at  the  time  of  the  first  conviction  and  were,  therefore,  not- 
included  in  the  table  under  discussion.  A  comparison  of  the  mean 
wages  at  first  and  latest  convictions  also  shows  that  the  women  were 
earning  more  at  latest  conviction  than  at  the  first,  and  more  than  at 
any  of  the  other  times  which  we  have  specified.  The  average  wage 
for  prevailing  work  which  applies  to  179  women  is  $3. 25 ±1.75.  That 
is,  the  average  wage  for  the  prevailing  work,  while  higher  than  the 
average  wage  in  the  first  job,  is  lower  than  the  average  wage  in  the 
latest  job,  or  the  wage  at  the  time  of  first  or  present  conviction. 
Throughout,  the  average  wage  for  women  employed  at  domestic  service 
is  low,  with  a  maximum  of  a  mean  weekly  wage  of  $4.29±:2.68.  There 
is  also  little  variation  between  the  lowest  wage  of  $2.56  and  the  high- 
est wage  of  $4.29. 

Table  128  presents  the  wages  earned  by  women  in  occupations  other 
than  domestic  service,  and  the  average  wages  for  each  of  the  specified 
times.  The  trend  is  in  the  same  direction  as  that  in  Table  127, 
with  the  lowest  mean  wage  of  $6.78  in  the  first  job,  in  contrast  to  the 
higher  wage  of  $9.17  in  the  latest  job.  The  standard  deviation,  how- 
ever, is  relatively  large  in  both  of  these  cases.  The  wage  at  first  con- 
viction, $8.52,  is  based  on  52  cases  only  and  though  the  mean  is  smaller 
than  the  average  wage  of  $10.20,  earned  at  present  conviction,  the 
standard  deviation  of  the  latter  is  so  large,  proportionately,  as  to  lessen 
markedly  the  importance  of  the  larger  mean.  The  mean  of  the  average 
wage  for  prevailing  M^ork  is  $8.90 ±; 6.60.  The  average  wage  for  pre- 
vailing work,  therefore,  would  seem  to  be  larger  than  either  the  wage 
in  the  first  job  or  the  wage  at  first  conviction.  On  the  whole,  the  wages 
are  low,  and  the  frequency  tables  show  a  wide  scattering  with  only  a 
few  cases  at  the  upper  wage  limit.  As  shown  in  Table  113,  the  pre- 
vailing work  of  40.4 -per  cent  of  the  delinquent  women  was  housework, 
while  56.1  per  cent  of  the  women  were  engaged  in  other  work.  This 
40  per  cent  of  women  were  earning  an  average  of  $3.25  a  week  plus 
living  at  domestic  service,  while  over  50  per  cent  of  the  women  were 
earning  an  average  of  $8.90  a  week. 

Since  the  numbers  of  women  in  institutional  groups  are  too  few 
for  comparison  of  the  means  when  divided  into  occupations,  a  corre- 
lation ratio  has  been  worked  between  the  institutional  groups  and  the 
average  weekly  wage  for  prevailing  work.  The  ratio  of  .25 ±.070  as 
given  in  Table  129  shows  that  between  institutional  groups  and  the 


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348     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

average  weekly  wage  for  women  whose  prevailing  work  was  domestic 
service,  there  is  a  small  but  probably  significant  relationship.  Refer- 
ence to  the  average  wages  earned  by  the  women  in  the  several  institu- 
tional groups  shows  that  the  order  of  arrangement  of  the  institutional 
groups  in  accordance  with  increasing  average  weekly  wage  for  pre- 
vailing work  where  that  work  is  housework  is  as  follows :  ( 1 )  Bed- 
ford, (2)  Auburn,  (3)  Magdalen,  (4)  Penitentiary,  (5)  Workhouse, 
(6)  Probation. 

In  a  correlation  ratio  between  the  institutional  groups  and  average 
weekly  wage  for  prevailing  work  of  women  employed  at  occupations 
other  than  domestic  service,  we  find  that  7^= .25 ±.063.  This  ratio  also 
would  indicate  that  the  relationship  between  the  two  factors  is  small 
but  probably  significant.  The  order  of  arrangement  of  the  institutional 
groups  in  accordance  with  the  increasing  average  weekly  wages  varies 
from  the  order  of  arrangement  in  Table  129,  and  is  as  follows:  (1) 
Bedford,  (2)  Magdalen,  (3)  Auburn,  (4)  Probation,  (5)  Workhouse, 
(6)   Penitentiary. 

From  the  two  tables  discussed  above  (Tables  129  and  130),  it 
seems  evident  that  there  is  a  tendency  for  the  Bedford  women  to  re- 
ceive a  lower  average  wage  than  the  women  of  the  other  groups. 
There  are  variations  between  the  wages  at  various  times  in  all  of  the 
other  groups  except  the  Workhouse,  which  comes  near  the  highest 
wage  limit  in  both  domestic  service  and  occupations  other  than  do- 
mestic service. 

(b)  Relationship  Betzveen  Average  Wage  and  Social  Factors 

(1)  Relationship  Between  Average  Wage  and  Grade  Finished. — In 
Tables  117  and  118  we  discussed  the  relationship  between  the  grade 
finished  and  the  first  wage  received,  showing  that  the  grade  finished 
has  a  very  slight  relationship  to  the  wage  one  is  first  able  to  earn  in 
either  domestic  service  or  in  occupations  other  than  domestic  service. 
If  we  consider  the  relationship  between  the  grade  finished  and  the 
average  wage  for  prevailing  work  of  those  employed  in  domestic  serv- 
ice and  in  occupations  other  than  domestic  service,  we  find  evidence 
of  somewhat  higher  relationships.  Table  131  shows  a  coefficient  of 
correlation  of  29 ±.077.  This  indicates  a  tendency  for  those  who 
reach  the  higher  grades  to  earn  a  higher  average  wage  for  prevailing 
work,  where  the  prevailing  work  is  domestic  service. 


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OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        351 

In  Table  132  a  similar  relationship  is  shown  between  the  grade 
finished  and  the  average  wage  for  prevailing  work  of  women  in  occu- 
pations other  than  domestic  service.  The  coefficient  of  correlation 
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case  also.  It  may  be  noted  that  there  is  a  distinct  rise  in  weekly  earn- 
ings for  the  women  who  have  had  more  schooling  than  the  average 
amount  for  the  group.  On  the  whole,  we  may  state  that  there  is  a 
tendency  among  all  of  the  working  women  in  our  group  for  those  with 
more  education  to  earn  a  higher  wage  in  their  prevailing  work  than 
those  with  less  education. 

(2)  Relationship  Betzveen  Aireragc  Wage  and  Nmnber  of  Convic- 
tions.— In  trying  to  determine  whether  there  is  any  relationship  between 
the  extent  of  delinquency  measured  by  number  of  convictions  and 
economic  efficiency  as  measured  by  average  wage  for  prevailing  work, 
the  partial  correlation  coefficient  of  number  of  previous  convictions 
and  average  weekly  w^age  for  prevailing  work,  for  constant  age,  has 
been  used.  Before  considering  this  coefficient,  it  may  be  of  interest  to 
present  Tables  133  and  134,  showing  the  relationship  between  age  and 
average  wage  for  the  two  occupational  groups. 

Table  133  shows  this  relationship  for  women  employed  at  domestic 
service,  giving  a  correlation  coefficient  of  zero.  The  regression  of 
wage  for  prevailing  work  on  age  is,  however,  non-linear ;  the  correla- 
tion ratio  for  this  is  .27 ±.069.  The  tendency  here  is  tow^ard  a  slight  in- 
crease in  wage  from  the  earliest  ages  and  a  decrease  in  wage  in  the  high- 
est ages.  The  tendency  between  ages  26  and  44  is  not  clear  except  in 
so  far  as  the  wage  is,  in  general,  higher  than  for  either  the  very  young 
or  the  very  old.  The  regression  of  age  on  wage  for  prevailing  work 
with  a  correlation  ratio  of  .11  ±.07  shows  no  trend  of  significance. 

If  we  turn  to  the  correlation  of  age  with  average  weekly  wage  of 
women  in  occupations  other  than  domestic  service,  we  find  more  rela- 
tion between  age  and  wage  for  prevailing  work  than  in  the  previous 
comparison.  The  regression  of  age  on  wage  for  prevailing  work 
shows  that  the  women  receiving  less  than  $7  a  week  are  below  the 
average  in  age.  The  correlation  ratio  is  .37±. 058.  There  is  a  clearly 
marked  tendency  for  these  women  as  they  grow  older  to  increase 
in  wage-earning  capacity.  From  these  two  tables  it  would  seem  that 
domestic  service  is  like  a  blind  alley  for  the  women  who  do  that  work 
mainly  for  a  living,  while  the  workers  in  other  occupations  tend  to 
increase  their  wages  as  they  grow  older. 


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OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        355 

Of  special  importance  for  estimating  the  relationship  between 
economic  efificiency  and  criminal  record  is  the  correlation  between 
average  weekly  wage  for  prevailing  work  and  number  of  previous  con- 
victions. Table  135  gives  the  correlation  between  number  of  previous 
convictions  and  average  weekly  wage  for  women  employed  in  domestic 
service  and  allied  occupations.  The  coefficient  of  correlation  here  is 
.046=!z.075.  Obviously  this  is  insufficient  to  indicate  the  presence  of 
any  relationship.  Because  of  the  probability  of  a  non-linear  relation- 
ship the  correlation  ratios  were  computed.  Both  ratios  are  sufficiently 
small  in  relation  to  their  standard  deviations  so  that  they  are  of  little 
importance  as  further  evidences  of  relationship.  We  have  gone  a  step 
further  and  attempted  to  discover  whether  any  significant  relationship 
would  appear  if  allowance  were  made  for  the  age  factor.  Computing 
the  partial  correlation  we  find:  r  (average  weekly  wage  with  number 
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our  analysis  of  these  data  is,  therefore,  the  indication  that  there  is  no 
relation  between  average  wage  and  number  of  convictions  if  we  con- 
sider those  women  whose  prevailing  work  has  been  of  the  nature  of 
domestic  service. 

Table  136  figures  the  relationship  between  weekly  wage  and  num- 
ber of  previous  convictions  for  women  in  occupations  other  than 
housework.  The  correlation  coefficient  of  — .067±.067  is  insufficient 
to  indicate  a  relationship  of  any  significance.  Moreover,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  women  employed  at  domestic  service,  the  correlation  ratios  need 
not  be  taken  into  consideration  because  of  the  small  values  of  these 
ratios  and  the  lack  of  regular  trend  in  the  lines  of  means.  Computing 
the  partial  correlation  coefficient,  with  age  constant,  we  get  the  follow- 
ing result:  r  (average  weekly  wage  with  number  of  previous  convic- 
tions, age  constant)^  — .169±.065.^'*  From  this  we  might  conclude 
that,  if  allowance  be  made  for  age,  there  is  evidence  of  a  very  slight 
negative  correlation  between  average  wage,  at  occupations  other  than 
domestic  work,  and  number  of  convictions.  This  does  not  show 
whether  this  slight  relationship  is  due  to  the  fact  that  women  with 

"  The  data  used  in  computing  this  coefficient  are  as  follows : 
r  (wages  with  convictions)  =  .046 
r   (wage  with  age)  =  .000 

r  (convictions  with  age)         =.175 

"  The  data  used  in  computing  this  coefficient  are  as  follows :  , 
r  (wage  with  convictions)     =  —  .067 
r  (wage  with  age)  =  .264 

r  (convictions  with  age)       =  .331 


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358    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

better  earning  capacity  get  into  trouble  slightly  less  often  because 
of  their  better  financial  status,  or  to  the  fact  that  a  woman  who  gets 
into  trouble  frequently  thereby  interrupts  her  working  career  and 
lowers  her  rate  of  earning. 

(c)  Brief  Comparison  of  Average  Wage  with  Wage  of  Certain  Groups 
in  General  Population 

The  number  of  our  women  in  any  one  occupation  is  too  small  for 
significant  comparison  with  the  wage  studies  in  given  occupations 
which  have  been  made  within  recent  years.  If  we  compare  the  totals 
of  our  domestic  service  and  occupations  other  than  domestic  service, 
the  basis  of  comparison  is  changed,  because  we  can  not  get  wage 
statistics  in  New  York  State  for  each  of  the  occupations  included  in 
this  total.  In  spite  of  the  discrepancies  in  the  basis  of  comparison,  we 
shall  present  a  few  of  the  wage  figures  for  certain  occupations  in  New 
York  State  and  neighboring  states,  to  see  if  the  trend  of  wages  among 
our  delinquents  diiTers  from  them  to  any  marked  degree.  Unfortu- 
nately, there  are  no  reliable  figures  on  wages  for  women  in  domestic 
service  so  that  a  comparison  of  the  wages  of  this  group  will  not  be 
possible.  Domestic  service  is  still  an  occupation  where  the  individual 
barters  with  the  individual  for  the  sale  and  purchase  of  labor.  In  cer- 
tain sections  of  urban  communities  there  is  what  approaches  a  stand- 
ard wage,  but  these  standards  may  vary  radically  within  the  different 
parts  of  the  same  city. 

In  making  any  comparisons,  the  average  wage  for  prevailing  work 
of  the  delinquent  women  will  be  used,  since  this  wage  is  probably  the 
least  affected  by  the  time  element  which  must  be  considered  in  dealing 
with  individuals  of  varying  ages.  The  wage  at  time  of  present  con- 
viction, of  course,  applies  to  work  done  within  the  years  1915-1916, 
but  since  so  many  of  the  women  (over  50  per  cent)  were  not 
working,  it  seems  more  advisable  to  use  a  wage  which  will  include 
a  larger  number  of  women.  We  are  citing  various  isolated  studies  for 
specified  occupations  in  order  to  estimate  roughly  how  the  earning 
capacity  of  our  women  stands  in  comparison  with  that  of  any  groups 
of  the  general  population.     (See  table,  p.  359.) 

This  crude  method  of  estimating  comparative  wages  indicates  that 
our  group  of  women  has  a  smaller  percentage  earning  under  $8  a 
week  in  their  prevailing  work  than  the  box-makers,  those  in  candy 
factories  and  in  small  neighborhood  or  department  stores.  Those  in 
the  large  department  stores  in  New  York  and  those  in  the  dress  and 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY       359 

Percentage  Earning  Weekly  Wages : 

Under  $4    Under  $6    Under  $8    Under  $10 
Delinquent  Women 
Average    wage     for    prevailing 

work  (not  domestic  service) .  .         5.0  29.1  59.4  76.8 

Box  Industry,  N.  Y.  State,  1914'';         8.8  38.1  64.2  85.4 

Confectionery     Industrv,     N.     Y. 

State,  1914'""   . . .' 12.3  54.6  80.5  90.6 

Stores :  "^ 

Large  department  store 53.0  

Small  neighborhood  store ....  68.0  

5  and   10  cent  store    99.0  

Dress  and  Waist  Industry,  N.  Y. 
City,  1913'"" 

Week-workers 0.2  5.3  21.1  39.3 

Clothing    Factories,    New    Jersey, 

1913-1914^"'=     4.2  23.6  55.9  91.7 

Clothing  Factories,  Massachusetts, 
1913  "<" 

Men's  Clothing   1.9  13.5  42.8  74.0 

Women's  Clothing  1.1  13.6  39.6  66.8 

waist  industry  in  New  York  have  a  smaller  percentage  earning  under 
$8  a  week  than  has  our  group  of  dehnquent  women.  The  two  indus- 
tries cited  in  neighboring  states.  New  Jersey  and  Massachusetts,  show 
that  there  is  a  smaller  percentage  than  in  our  delinquent  group,  earning 
the  small  wage  of  less  than  $8  or  less  than  $10  a  week  in  the  clothing 
industry.  From  this  we  may  see  that  the  wages  in  the  different  in- 
dustries noted  vary  considerably,  but  that  aside  from  the  workers  in 
the  dress  and  waist  industry,  our  group  of  women  shows  no  appreci- 
ably higher  percentage  earning  under  $8  a  week,  and  in  several  instances 
the  percentage  of  delinquent  women  earning  over  $8  a  week  is  larger 
than  the  percentage  of  workers  earning  this  amount  in  the  occupations 
cited.  In  the  same  report  from  which  the  above  figures  were  taken  ^^ 
the  statement  is  made :  "There  is  ample  ground  for  the  conclusion 
that  from  two-thirds  to  three-fourths  of  women  workers  in  factories, 
stores,  laundries,  and  in  industrial  wage-earning  occupations  generally, 
work  at  wages  under  $8  a  week.     Since  practically  all  findings  of 

"Most  of  the  above  figures  were  taken  from  "Conditions  of  Labor  in  Amer- 
ican Industries"  by  W.  Jett  Lauck  and  Edgar  Sydenstricker.  Funk  and  Wag- 
nails  Co.,  N.  Y.  C,  1917,  pp.  53-57.     The  reports  cited  are : 

a.  Fourth  Report  of  the  New  York  Factory  Investigating  Commission, 

Feb.   15,  1915.     Vol.  2.     Albany,  J.  B.  Lyon  Co. 

b.  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics :  Wages,  etc.,  in  the  dress  and  waist 

industry  in   New  York  City,   1913    (Women). 

c.  New  Jersey,  Bureau  of  Statistics :  Annual  report  on  the  statistics  of 

manufactures    for    the   year    ending    Oct.   31,    1913    (16   years    and 
over). 

d.  Massachusetts,   Bureau  of   Statistics :  Annual  report  on  the  statistics 

of  manufactures  for  the  year  1913   (18  years  and  over). 


360    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

minimum  wage  commissions  and  boards  in  the  United  States  and  the 
estimates  of  investigators  agree  that  the  independent  woman  worker 
can  not  live  decently  and  without  detriment  to  her  health  on  less  than 
$8  a  week,  this  fact  has  been  given  a  great  deal  of  emphasis  during 
recent  years. "^° 

We  might  also  compare  with  the  wages  of  our  group  the  wages  of 
workers  in  silk  mills  and  in  department  stores  in  1908.  These  figures 
are  given  in  a  study  of  these  industries  in  the  report  on  the  Condition 
of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-earners  in  the  United  States.^'^  The  first 
study  gives  in  detail  the  percentage  of  women  over  fifteen  earning 
specified  wages  in  the  silk  mills  in  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania.  The 
second  study  gives  the  percentages  of  women  employees  earning  speci- 
fied wages  in  department  and  retail  stores  in  New  York  City,  Chicago 
and  Philadelphia.  The  total  workers  in  stores  include  cash  girls, 
messengers,  inspectors,  bundle  wrappers,  packers,  saleswomen,  of^ce 
employees  and  buyers. 

Percentage  Earning  Weekly  Wages : 
Under  $8    Under  $10 
Delinquent  Women  (not  in  domestic  service) 59.4  76.8 

Workers  in  silk  mills  in  New  Jersey     55.4  69.8 

Workers  in  silk  mills  in  Pennsylvania   87.5  96.4 

Employees  in  department  and  retail  stores  in  New 

York  City,  Chicago  and  Philadelphia   57.5  76.1 

From  these  investigations  made  several  years  ago  it  seems  evident 
that,  except  for  the  workers  in  silk  mills  in  Pennsylvania  who  were 
earning  very  low  wages,  the  delinquent  group  is  like  the  workers  in 
silk  mills  in  New  Jersey  and  the  employees  in  stores  in  the  percent- 
age of  women  earning  under  $8  a  week,  though  there  are  slightly 
more  of  the  delinquents  than  of  the  other  two  groups  earning  the  lower 
wages.  The  delinquents  have  a  somewhat  larger  percentage  than  the 
workers  in  silk  mills  earning  imder  $10  a  week,  and  only  a  very 
slightly  larger  percentage  than  the  workers  in  department  stores.  The 
report  under  consideration  gives  the  average  weekly  wage  of  the  total 
group  of  workers  in  department  stores  as  $7.93.  In  the  delinquent 
group  the  average  weekly  wage  for  prevailing  work  is  $8.90  with  the 
large  standard  deviation  of  $6.60.  The  longer  range  of  wages  of  the 
delinquent  group  would  indicate  that  its  standard  deviation  is  larger 
than  that  for  the  group  of  women  in  stores.     The  average  wage  for 

*°  Op.  cit.,  p.  43. 

"U.  S.  Department  of  Labor,  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics:  "Summary  of  the 
Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-earners  in  the  United  States." 
pp.  196  and  216, 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        361 

the  saleswomen  alone  is  $8.84  a  week,  but  these  wages  also  have  a 
short  range,  so  that  the  standard  deviation  is  probably  small.  From 
this  scattering  material  we  have  gathered  on  wage,  it  would  seem  that 
our  delinquent  group  has  earned  an  average  wage  as  high  as  and  in  a 
few  cases  higher  than  the  weekly  wage  earned  by  women  in  specified 
occupations  in  New  York  State  and  certain  neighboring  states.  The  fol- 
lowing discussion  will  show  the  estimate  of  regularity  of  work  of  the 
delinquent  women,  and  will  indicate  that  a  very  high  percentage  have 
worked  less  than  one  half  of  the  time,  so  that  their  actual  average 
income  has  been  much  less  than  a  statement  of  wage  would  indicate. 

Before  proceeding  to  discuss  the  regularity  of  work,  it  may  be  of 
interest  to  note  Miss  Conyngton's  findings  regarding  low  wages  as  a 
cause  of  delinquency.  She  writes :  -^  "Not  one  worker  assigned 
poverty  or  lovv^  wages  as  a  direct  and  immediate  cause  of  immorality. 
It  was  agreed  that  indirectly  their  influence  is  great,  but  in  the  whole 
inquiry  only  five  cases  were  found  in  which  the  workers  reporting 
them  believed  that  the  women  had  been  driven  into  wrong-doing  by 
want." 

ESTIMATE  OF  REGULARITY  OF   WORK 

We  have  attempted  to  "size  up"  the  work  records  of  the  women 
whom  we  have  studied  intensively,  both  by  an  estimate  of  the  regtf- 
larity  of  employment  and  by  a  total  estimate  of  the  work  record.  Un- 
fortunately, it  is  not  possible  to  present  similar  figures  for  either  of 
these  for  the  general  population.  We  have  tried  to  get  figures  from 
employment  agencies  which  would  have  a  record  of  individual  appli- 
cants for  a  period  of  years  so  that  we  might  determine  how  much  of 
the  time  the  rank  and  file  who  applied  for  work  were  employed.  These 
figures  could  not  be  obtained,  however,  and  so  we  present  our  data 
as  merely  descriptive  of  our  total  group.  In  considering  the  regularity 
of  work  we  have  aimed  to  show  how  much  of  the  time  in  a  woman's 
work  history  she  was  actually  working  when  she  had  no  other  legiti- 
mate means  of  support.  We  have  grouped  the  women  who  have  done 
any  work  into  five  classes  showing  the  amount  of  time  working.  In 
order  to  determine  this,  we  have  observed  the  range  of  the  expected 
work  period, — that  is,  from  the  date  of  the  first  job  to  present  con- 
viction, or  to  the  time  to  which  she  would  be  expected  to  work,  and 
have  based  the  regularity  on  the  length  of  time  working  during  this 

'^Op.  cit.,  p.  82. 


362    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

period.  Neither  the  time  when  married  and  keeping  house,  nor  the 
time  in  institutions  has  been  counted  as  idle.  The  five  classes  are  as 
follows : 

1.  Those  who  have  worked  practically  none,  but  may  have  held  one  or 
two  jobs  for  short  times. 

a.  A  typical  case  in  this  class  is  the  colored  girl  in  Bedford,  23 
years  old,  who  began  work  at  16  years  as  nursegirl  for  a 
family  on  Long  Island.  She  worked  for  2  months  in  1909 
and  then  ran  away  from  her  employer.  Since  that  time  she 
has  prostituted  practically  all  of  the  time  and  has  done  no 
legitimate  work. 
b.  Another  girl  in  the  Workhouse,  20  years  of  age,  began  to 
work  at  16  and  held  3  short  jobs  in  quick  succession, — 2  weeks 
in  a  factory  for  manufacturing  pennants,  1  week  as  attendant 
in  an  orphan  asylum,  and  a  few  days  coloring  films.  Her  en- 
tire work  period  covered  less  than  a  month  while  the  expected 
work  period  was  4  years. 

2.  Those  who  have  worked  about  one-quarter  of  the  time. 

a.  Here  we  might  cite  the  girl  of  17  years  who  started  work  at 
16  years  and  during  the  year  of  her  expected  work  period 
held  S  jobs  as  follows: 

1.  Seamstress  in  waist  factory,  3  weeks. 

2.  Removing  foil  from  scrap  candy,  1  month. 

3.  Spinner  in  yarn  factory,  7  days. 

4.  Housework,  2  weeks. 

5.  Seamstress  in  factory,  1  week. 
That  is,  she  worked  about  11  weeks  or  approximately  one- 
fourth  of  the  time  she  was  supposed  to  be  working. 

3.  Those  who  have  worked  about  one-half  of  the  time. 

4.  Those  who  have  zvorked  about  three-quarters  of  the  time. 

5.  Those  who  have  worked  practically  all  of  the  time.  The  number 
of  women  in  this  class  is  very  few  and  nearly  all  are  those 
who  have  had  excellent  work  records.  The  individual  records  will 
not  be  enumerated  here,  since  in  nearly  every  case  they  are  a  repe- 
tition of  one  job  after  another  with  very  short  or  no  intervals  be- 
tween the  jobs. 

If  we  turn  to  Table  137,  we  may  see  how  the  institutional  groups 
vary  in  the  estimate  of  regularity  of  work.  It  is  obvious,  first  of  all, 
that  the  percentages  are  very  much  alike  in  the  various  institutional 
groups.  Probation,  it  is  true,  has  a  smaller  percentage  who  did  very 
little  work,  and  it  also  has  a  larger  percentage  in  the  two  upper  classes. 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY       363 

The  Workhouse  has  the  smallest  percentage  of  women  in  the  two  upper 
classes,  and  this  serves  to  justify  the  impression  one  gets  by  reading 
over  the  work  records  of  the  Workhouse  women.  Their  own  state- 
ments of  number  of  jobs  held  and  length  of  time  in  them  is  so  indefi- 
nite, particularly  with  the  older  women,  that  many  of  the  jobs  were 
verified  only  with  great  difficulty  and  were  then  found  to  have  been 
held  for  only  a  few  days.  For  the  women  in  the  Workhouse,  which 
has  the  largest  number  of  recidivists,  the  work  history  is  a  story  of 
many  repetitions, — coming  out  of  the  Workhouse,  finding  a  position  for 
a  few  days,  committing  an  offense  against  the  law  again,  being  recom- 
mitted to  the  Workhouse,  and  so  on.  For  the  total  group  of  women 
there  are  in  the  first  three  classes,  60.9  per  cent  who  worked  approxi- 
mately less  than  half  the  time,  and  who  could  not  have  earned  enough 
in  the  time  working  to  tide  them  over  the  rest  of  the  time.  Only  about< 
3.5  per  cent  were  surely  able  to  support  themselves,  while  35.6  per  cent 
by  working  about  three-quarters  of  the  time  may  have  had  sufficient 
money  by  careful  saving  to  tide  them  over  the  time  of  idleness.^^ 

TABLE  137 

REGULARITY  OF  EMPLOYMENT 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Regularity 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

Worked  almost  none 

Worked  about  one  -  fourth  of 
time 

11.2 

23.5 
26.5 

36.7 
2.0 

10.1 

17.4 
29.0 

42.0 
1.5 

6.9 

27.8 
31.9 

30.6 

2.8 

10.0 

22.2 

27.8 

32.2 

7.8 

8.8 

35.0 
25.0 

30.0 
1.3 

3.9 

16.7 
31.2 

42.9 
5.2 

8.6 
23  9 

Worked  about  one-half  of  time . 

Worked  about  three  -  quarters 
of  time 

28.4 
35  6 

Worked  nearly  all  of  time 

3.5 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

98 

69 

72 

90 

80 

77 

486 

^'It  should  be  remembered  that  the  time  in  idleness  does  not  include  the  time 
keeping  house  for  one's  family  or  parents,  or  the  time  in  institutions,  so  that 
idleness  without  money  means  no  legitimate  means  of  support. 


364     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

It  may  be  of  interest  here  to  add  Table  138  showing  the  distribu- 
tion of  estimate  of  regularity  of  work  among  the  nativity  groups. 
From  this  table  it  seems  that  the  foreign  born  have  worked  much 
more  of  the  time  than  either  the  native  white  or  native  colored.  That 
is,  44.8  per  cent  of  the  foreign  born  were  employed  less  than  half  of 
the  time  while  66.5  per  cent  of  the  native  white  and  70.5  per  cent  of 
the  native  colored  fall  in  this  group.  The  native  colored  have  the  poor- 
est showing  in  the  regularity  of  work. 

TABLE  138 

REGULARITY  OF  EMPLOYMENT 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  Classified 
by  Nativity  and  Color 


Nativity  and  Color 

Regularity 

Total 

Foreign 

Born 

Total 
Native 
Born 

Native 
White 

Native 
Colored 

Total 

Worked  almost  none 

Worked  about  one-fourth  of  time. 

Worked  about  one-half  of  time.  .  . 

Worked  about  three-quarters  of 
time 

Worked  nearly  all  of  time 

4.2 
15.4 
25.2 

48.3 
7.0 

10.5 

27.2 
29.8 

30.4 
2.1 

10.6 

25.2 
30.7 

31.5 
2.0 

10.2 
33.0 
27.3 

27.3 
2.3 

8.7 

23.7 

28.5 

35.5 
3.5 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

loa.o 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

143 

342 

254 

88 

485 

TOTAL   ESTIMATE   OF    WORK   RECORD 


The  total  estimate  of  the  efficiency  of  the  work  history,  consider- 
ing all  phases  of  the  work  record,  is  based  on  the  following  factors: 


1.  Prevailing  wage. 

2.  Regularity  of  work. 

3.  Ability  as  reported  by  employers,  etc. 

4.  Increase  or  decrease  in  wage,  regularity  of  work  and  ability  as 
shown  by  a  survey  of  the  entire  work  record. 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        365 

The  estimate  we  have  used  is  divided  into  five  classes  which  have 
been  made  up  on  the  following  basis.  The  points  suggested  under 
each  class  are  not  arbitrary  and  there  are  innumerable  combinations  of 
good  and  poor  qualities  in  certain  individual  work  histories  which 
might  arise  to  place  the  estimate  in  one  or  another  class.  The  follow- 
ing scheme  was  used  only  as  a  means  of  showing  the  trend  of  the 
most  of  the  records.^^ 

1.  Very  poor.     May  include  cases  with 

a.  Very   low  prevailing  wage    (not   enough  to  live   on  indepen- 
dently). 

b.  Very  irregular  work  record   (class  1  or  2). 

c.  Ability  very  poor  as  reported  by  employers. 

d.  No  increase  to  higher  wages,  etc.,  and  cases  with  actual  de- 
crease. 

2.  Poor. 

a.  Low  prevailing  wage. 

b.  Irregular  work  record   (class  2  or  3). 

c.  Ability  poor. 

d.  Very  little  or  no  increase  or  development  in  work  record. 

3.  Mediocre.     Includes  women  who  are  probably  self-supporting,  but 
barely  so. 

a.  Wage  large  enough  to  live  on  but  with  no  possibility  of  saving. 

b.  Fairly  regular  work  record  (about  class  4).  Includes  cases 
of  seasonal  unemployment  where  women  are  out  of  work 
through  no  fault  of  <^heir  own. 

c.  Mediocre  ability.     Able  to  keep  job  requiring  no  skill. 

d.  Possibly  slight  increase  in  wage. 

4.  Good.   Women  who  are  thoroughly  self-supporting  and  good  workers, 

a.  Good  prevailing  wage. 

b.  Regular  work  (class  5  or  occasionally  4). 

c.  Well  spoken  of  by  employers. 

d.  Record  shows  fairly  consistent  development  in  wage,  regularity 
and  ability. 

5.  Very  good.     Exceptionally  good  work  record. 

a.  Consistently  high  wage. 

b.  Regular  work   (class  5  or  occasionally  4). 

c.  Very  well  recommended  by  employer. 

d.  Consistent  development. 

"  These  estimates  were  made  separately  on  each  institutional  group  by  two 
persons  and  checked  by  a  third  person  so  that  the  method  of  treating  each 
case  was  uniform. 


366     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

We  shall  cite  a  few  examples  of  work  records  which  have  been  esti- 
mated to  belong  in  one  or  another  of  these  five  classes  and  which  are 
typical  of  many  cases  in  each  of  the  institutional  groups. 

Clu^s  I.  A  girl  16  years,  2  months  old  at  time  of  conviction  for 
vagrancy  (prostitution),  is  very  low  grade  mentally  and  comes  from 
most  abominable  home  surroundings.  She  began  to  work  when  14, 
has  an  expected  work  period  of  2  years  and  worked  7  months.  Her 
jobs  are  as  follows : 

a.  General  housework  for  Mrs.  M.,  M ,  New  York,  2  months, 

1915,  earning  $6  a  week.  (Her  own  statement  which  could 
not  be  verified  and  which  is  probably  untrue.) 

b.  Helped  with   housework,    Mrs.   M ,    S ,   New   York,   1 

week,  1915,  earning  $1  a  week.  Was  discharged  because  she 
was  so  unsatisfactory.  Could  not  learn  how  to  do  anything, 
was  very  careless  and  dirty. 

c.  General  housework,  Mrs.  S ,  M ,  New  York,  2  months, 

1916,  earning  $1  a  week.  Says  she  left  because  there  were 
too  manv  boarders.     Employer  does  not  remember  her. 

d.  Winder  'in  silk  mill,  M ,  New  York,  3  days,  Dec.  20-23, 

1916,  at  rate  of  $4.50  a  week.    Was  very  unsatisfactory, 

e.  Piece  worker  on  fireworks,  19  days.  May  29 — June  16,  1917, 
at  $6  a  week.  Was  very  unsatisfactory,  flirted  with  men  and 
could  not  do  the  work.     Was  arrested  while  working  here. 

This  girl  earned  not  more  than  $75  during  two  years.  She  worked 
about  one-fourth  of  the  time,  her  employers  report  her  as  unable 
to  do  the  work,  and  her  record  shows  no  consistent  increase  in 
wage,  or  ability  to  do  work. 

Class  2.  A  girl,  16  3'ears,  9  months  of  age,  was  com.mitted  to  Bed- 
ford for  vagrancy  (prostitution).  She  is  also  of  low  grade  men- 
tality. She  started  work  at  15  and  has  an  expected  work  period 
of  21  months,  during  which  she  worked  about  16  to  17  months. 
Her  work  was  as   follows: 

a.  General  housework,  4  months,  1915,  earning  $3  a  week.  Said 
she  left  because  work  was  too  far  from  home.  (Could  not 
be  verified.) 

b.  General  housework,  4  weeks,  1916,  at  $2  a  week.  Said  she 
left  because  she  could  not  eat  Jewish  food.  (Could  not  be 
verified.) 

c.  General  housework,  7  months,  1916,  earning  from  $1.50  to 
$2  a  week.  Was  discharged  for  dishonesty  and  employer  said 
she  grew  so  careless  in  her  work  she  could  not  keep  her. 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        367 

d.  Helper  in  hotel  dining  room,  7  weeks  in  spring  of  1916  and 

4  weeks   in  the   summer,   earning  $2.50  to  $3  a  week.     Her 

work  was  reported  as  unsatisfactory.     She  was  absent-minded 

and  inefficient. 
€.  General  housework,  2  weeks,  1916,  earning  $3  a  week.     Was 

discharged  as  "unsatisfactory  and  very  dirty." 
f.  Cigar-making  in  factory,  in  July,  1916  at  $3  a  week.     Was 

discharged  as  unsatisfactory. 
g.  Cleaning  house,  4  days,   November,   1916,  at  $.35   for  half  a 

day's  work.     Was  very  dirty  and  unreliable  and  thoroughly 

unsatisfactory. 

This  girl  earned  a  low  prevailing  wage  of  about  $2.33  weekly  plus 
maintenance,  she  worked  about  three-quarters  of  the  time,  but  her 
ability  was  nil  and  she  was  discharged  from  four  places.  Her  work 
shows  no  consistent  development.  Because  of  her  fairly  regular 
work  record  she  was  placed  in  class  2,  instead  of  class  1  where  her 
ability  alone  would  place  her. 

Class  J.  A  girl,  18  years,  5  months  of  age,  was  convicted  of  va- 
grancy (prostitution).  She  is  very  bright,  quick  and  learns  easily. 
She  began  work  when  15,  and  in  an  expected  work  period  of  38 
months  worked  about  half  of  that  time. 

a.  Nursegirl.  2  weeks  in  September,  1913,  at  $2  a  week.  Was 
discharged  because   she   was  unreliable  and  unsatisfactory. 

b.  Sorting  paper  in  paper  mill  1  year,  from  May,  1914,  to  May, 
1915,  earning  $5  a  week.  Employer  says  she  was  "equal  to 
average." 

c.  Banding  cigars  in  factory,  3  months  at  $6  a  week.  "Left  be- 
cause work  made  her  ill.  Employer  says  she  was  "O.K.  but 
not  steady." 

d.  Feeder  on  forming  machine  in  hat  factory  for  3  months,  earn- 
ing $10  a  week.  Was  very  good  at  first  but  finally  had  to  be 
discharged  on  account  of  her  character. 

e.  Banding  cigars  for  1  week  previous  to  arrest  at  $6  a  week. 
This  girl  averaged  $5  a  week  in  her  prevailing  work,  she  worked 
about  half  of  the  time,  had  good  ability  if  she  would  use  it,  and 
showed  possibilities  of  increase  in  earning  capacity  and  length  of 
time  in  jobs.  Her  whole  work  record,  though  unsatisfactory  be- 
cause of  the  two  discharges,  might  be  called  mediocre. 

Class  4.  A  woman  of  29  years,  10  months,  was  convicted  of  pos- 
sessing opium.  She  started  work  at  15  and  worked  for  11  years, 
singing  and  dancing  in  vaudeville  performances.    Though  there  was 


368    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

only  a  slight  increase  in  her  wage  up  to  $25  a  week  and  traveling 
expenses,  she  made  a  name  for  herself  in  many  of  the  small  places 
near  New  York  and  was  very  successful  as  a  dancer.  She  was 
placed  in  class  four,  because  she  had  a  fairly  high  average  wage,  be- 
cause she  had  ability,  and  because  she  worked  steadily  up  until  the 
last  4  years  before  her  conviction  when  she  acquired  a  drug  habit. 

Class  5.  A  woman,  25  years,  7  months  of  age,  was  convicted  of  vio- 
lating the  Tenement  House  Law.  She  began  work  at  14  and  held  13 
jobs,  covering  9  years,  during  her  work  period  of  11  years.  The  work 
record  is  rather  too  long  and  too  much  the  same  to  give  all  of  the 
details  but  the  main  trends  are  as  follows:  ten  of  the  thirteen  jobs 
were  in  general  housework,  the  other  three  being  waitress,  usher  in 
theater  for  two  weeks,  and  laundry  work  in  a  laundry  for  six  weeks. 
The  wage  begins  at  $2  a  week  in  the  first  jobs  and  runs  progressively 
through  $4  a  week,  $5  a  week,  $6  a  week  and  $7  a  week  and  living, 
which  she  had  been  earning  in  her  two  latest  jobs.  Several  of  the 
records  we  were  not  able  to  verify  because  the  employers  had  moved, 
but  those  from  whom  we  heard,  speak  of  her  as  "very  satisfactory," 
"excellent,"  "the  best  worker  we  ever  had,"  and  "A,  No.  L"  Though 
this  girl  was  out  of  work  practically  two  years  out  of  the  11,  she  was 
placed  in  the  highest  class  because  of  her  steadily  increasing  wage, 
and  her  unusually  good  ability  which  was  spoken  of  by  every  em- 
ployer. 

(a)  Distribution  for  Institutional  Groups 

If  we  apply  this  estimate  to  the  institutional  groups,  we  find  irf 
Table  139  that  there  is  considerable  variation  between  the  groups 
though  there  is  the  same  trend  running  through  each.  As  with  the  esti- 
mate of  regularity  of  work,  the  Probation  group  has  the  smallest  per- 
centage, only  6.5  per  cent,  in  the  very  poor  class,  while  the  Workhouse 
runs  up  to  17.5  per  cent  for  the  same  class.  It  is  also  of  interest  to 
note  that  the  Workhouse  and  Bedford,  those  whose  records  were 
known  least  and  those  which  were  known  most  thoroughly,  have  no 
representative  in  the  very  good  class.  Only  1.7  per  cent  of  the  total 
group  have  exceptionally  good  work  records  and  only  12.3  per  cent  a 
record  that  might  be  called  good.  Roughly,  by  the  method  of  our  esti- 
mate, the  women  in  classes  1  and  2  could  not  possibly  be  self-support- 
ing if  they  lived  on  what  they  earned  from  their  legitimate  employ- 
ment. Those  in  class  3  might,  with  great  care  and  with  no  occasion 
for  large  additional  expenditures,  get  along  on  their  earnings,  while 
those  in  the  two  upper  classes  ought  to  be  able  to  live  on  their  wages. 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        369 

By  tliis  standard,  we  find  that  for  the  total  group  of  women,  49.7  per 
cent,  ahnost  half  of  the  women,  have  poor  or  very  poor  work  records 
and  could  not  possibly  be  self-supporting  on  the  amount  they  have 
earned,  36.4  per  cent  of  the  total  group  have  mediocre  records  and 
could  wdth  great  care  have  lived  on  their  earnings,  while  14.0  per  cent 
have  good  work  records  and  could  probably  be  called  entirely  self-sup- 
porting. It  is  a  striking  commentary  on  the  economic  competence  of 
this  group  of  delinquent  women  that  as  a  group  they  have  worked  so 
irregularly  and  that  half  of  them  at  least  have  done  so  little  and  such 
poor  w^ork  that  they  could  not  have  lived  on  their  earnings. 

TABLE  139 

ESTIMATE  OF  WORK  RECORD 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

of 
Work  Record 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

Very  poor 

Poor 

Fair 

14.3 

50.0 

31.6 

4.1 

13.2 
33.8 
36.8 
11.8 
4.4 

11.8 
39.7 
36.8 

8.8 
2.9 

12.2 

32.2 

27.8 

26.7 

1.1 

17.5 
36.3 
35.0 
11.3 

6.5 
27.3 
53.2 
10.4 

2.6 

12.7 

37.0 
36.4 

Good 

12.3 

Very  good 

1.7 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Xumber  of  cases 

98 

68 

68 

90 

80 

77 

481 

(b)  Distribution  for  Nativity  Groups 

If  we  turn  to  Table  140,  showing  the  distribution  of  women  in 
nativity  groups  by  the  estimate  of  the  work  record,  we  note  first 
of  all  the  very  small  percentage  of  the  foreign  born  who  fall  in  the 
poorest  class,  the  larger  percentage  of  the  native  white  in  this  class 
and  the  very  much  higher  percentage,  almost  five  times  as  many  women, 
among  the  native  colored.  The  native  colored  have  no  representa- 
tives in  the  exceptionally  good  work  records,  while  the  native  white 
have  only  .8  of  a  per  cent  and  the  foreign  born  4.3  per  cent.  If 
we  use  the  larger  groupings  by  combining  classes  1  and  2,  and  4  and 
5,  we  find  that  the  foreign  born  have  32.2  per  cent  in  the  class  which 


370     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

could  not  possibly  be  self-supporting  from  the  amount  earned  in  legit- 
imate work,  while  the  native  white  have  44.8  per  cent  in  this  class  and 
the  colored  62.5  per  cent.  In  the  mediocre  class,  it  will  be  seen,  the 
foreign  born  have  43.6  per  cent,  the  native  white  34.5  per  cent  and  the 
native  colored  30.7  per  cent.  In  the  upper  class  of  those  probably 
self-supporting,  we  find  25.0  per  cent  among  the  foreign  born,  10.3 
per  cent  among  the  native  white  and  6.8  per  cent  among  the  native 
colored.  From  this  it  would  seem  that  the  foreign  group  are  more 
efficient  and  regular  workers,  if  we  view  their  work  records  as  a  whole, 
than  either  the  native  white  or  the  native  colored,  and  that  the  native 
colored  have  the  most  unsatisfactory  work  records.  In  order  to  ex- 
plain this,  we  might  turn  back  to  Table  138  which  shows  that  the 
foreign  born  have  worked  much  more  of  the  time  than  have  the  native 
born.  Table  112  also  shows  us  that  the  prevailing  work  of  the  foreign 
born  differs  quite  markedly  from  the  prevailing  w^ork  of  either  the 
native  white  or  native  colored,  with  slight  differences  in  certain  of  the 
occupations  but  very  striking  differences  in  occupations  such  as  do- 
mestic service  or  factory  work.^^ 

(c)  Relationship  to  Factors  Within  Work  Record 
In  this  connection  we  shall  try  to  determine  whether  there  is  any 
relationship  between  the  nature  of  prevailing  work  and  the  estimate 
of  the  work  record.  The  relationship  of  these  two  factors  is  tabulated 
in  Table  141.  From  this  it  is  seen  that  there  is  no  striking  relation- 
ship. Perhaps  the  most  noteworthy  thing  about  the  table  is  the  fact 
that  both  domestic  service  and  factory  work  are  represented  by  indi- 
viduals of  all  degrees  of  efficiency  as  indicated  by  the  total  work  his- 
tory. The  failure  of  the  clerical  workers  to  show  any  individuals 
with  very  good  or  very  poor  records  is  striking,  as  is  the  fact  that  of 
the  three  professional  women  of  the  group  none  show  a  record  better 
than  fair. 

*^In  answer  to  the  objection  which  may  be  raised  that  the  foreign  born 
seem  to  have  a  better  work  record  because  we  have  been  able  to  verify  less  of 
their  work  record  and  they  tend  to  exaggerate  their  ability  in  their  own  state- 
ment of  work,  we  give  the  following  figures  showing  whether  the  data  on  which 
the  estimates  are  based  are  largely  verified  or  largely  unverified.  This  shows 
that  about  the  same  percentage  of  records  are  verified  among  the  foreign  born 
and  the  native  colored,  while  the  native  white  have  a  larger  percentage  verified. 

Largely  Verified     Largely  Unverified 

Foreign  Born   '  55.0  45.0 

Total    Native    Born    64.7 35J 

Native  White    67.9  32.1 

Native    Colored    55.7 44J 

Total  Group    6l9  38l 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY       371 


TABLE  140 

ESTIMATE  OF  WORK  RECORD 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  Classified  by 
Nativity  and  Color 


Nativity  and  Color 

Estimate  of  Work  Record 

Total 
Foreign  Born 

Total 
Native  Born 

Native 
White 

Native 
Colored 

Total 

Very  poor 

Poor 

Fair 

Good 

Very  good 

4.3 
27.9 
43.6 
20.7 

4.3 

16.2 
40.6 
33.5 

8.8 
.6 

14.3 

40.5 

34.5 

9.5 

.8 

21.6 

40.9 

30.7 

6.8 

12.7 

37.1 

36.5 

12.3 

1.7 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

140 

340 

252 

88 

480 

TABLE  141 
Nature  of  Prevailing  Work  in  Relation  to  Estimate  of  Work  Record 


Domestic  service 

Factory  work 

Home  work 

Restaurant  and  hotel  work . 

Work  in  stores 

Vaudeville  performers , 

Clerical  work    

Professional  service 

Personal  service 

Charwomen 

Miscellaneous 


Estimate  op  Work  Record 


Very 
Poor 


Total . 


26 
12 
1 
5 
6 
1 

1 
1 
2 
2 
57 


Poor 


81 
43 

4 
10 
13 

3 


Fair 


167 


63 
49 
11 
11 
16 
7 
4 


Good 


169 


21 

14 

3 

4 

3 


Very 
Good 


57 


Total 


193 

120 

19 

30 

40 

19 

13 

3 

13 

3 

5 

458 


7>n    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

It  is  of  interest  here  to  see  if  there  is  a  relationship  between  the  kind 
of  work  one  does  when  she  first  starts  working  and  the  estimate  of 
the  work  record  which  follows.  Table  142  shows  this  relationship.  As 
in  the  preceding  table  there  is  little  indication  of  any  striking  relation. 
One  starting  in  almost  any  occupation  has  a  fair  chance  of  making* 
either  a  good  or  a  poor  work  record,  although  the  chances  are  over- 
weighted toward  the  latter  probability  except  in  case  of  two  of  the 
very  small  groups. 

TABLE  142 

Estimate  of  Work  Record  in  Relation  to  Kind  of  Work  in  First  Job 


Estimate  of  Work  Record 

Total 

Very 
Poor 

Poor 

Fair 

Good 

Very 
Good 

Domestic  service 

23 
19 

75 

45 

70 

57 

21 
13 

2 

2 

191 

Factory  work 

136 

A 

Home  work 

2 

5 

6 

1 

14 

o 

"-5 

Restaurant  and  hotel  work .... 

5 

15 

7 

2 

29 

s 

c 

Work  in  stores 

4 

19 

14 

5 

3 

45 

o 

Vaudeville  performers 

2 

1 

5 

5 

13 

Clerical  work 

10 

4 

5 

19 

a 

Professional  service 

1 

2 

2 

5 

Personal  service 

1 

4 

3 

2 

1 

11 

Charwomen 

1 

1 

2 

Miscellaneous 

2 

3 

3 

1 

9 

Total 

60 

177 

172 

57 

8 

474 

(d)  Relationship  to  Other  Social  Factors 

A  reason  often  advanced  by  child  labor  propagandists  for  much 
of  the  economic  inefficiency  is  that  those  who  start  work  earliest  have 
no  opportunity  for  training,  that  they  start  work  in  an  unskilled  oc- 
cupation, get  into  a  rut,  and  are  never  able  to  progress.  As  they  grow 
older  they  become  slower  and  are  gradually  pushed  out  to  more  and 
more  casual  work,  while  younger  persons  fill  their  places.     In  order  to 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY'       373 

see  whether  in  our  group  of  delinquent  women  there  is  any  tendency 
for  those  who  start  work  earHest  to  have  any  less  satisfactory  work 
records,  the  following  correlation  table  is  presented  (Table  143).  By 
calculating  the  correlation  ratio  we  find  that  7^  =.14  with  a  standard 
deviation  of  .047.  From  this  it  would  seem  that  there  is  a  significant 
but  a  small  relationship  between  the  age  at  starting  work  and  the  esti- 
mate of  the  work  record.  The  means  of  the  age  at  starting  work 
show  that  for  the  three  lowest  classes  of  the  estimate  of  the  work 
record,  the  average  ages  at  starting  work  are  about  the  same,  though 
there  is  a  very  slight  increase  in  age  from  class  1  to  class  3.  The  age  at 
starting  work  is  appreciably  higher,  20  years,  in  both  classes  4  and  5, 
showing  that  those  who  have  been  most  competent  industrially  have 
started  work  at  a  later  age  than  those  who  have  had  very  poor  work 
records.  As  stated  before,  the  relationship  is  low  and  would  seem  to 
indicate  that  the  factor  of  starting  work  early,  though  it  has  a  slight 
efifect  on  the  later  efficiency  of  the  work  record,  is  not  one  of  the  im- 
portant factors  operating  in  the  determination  of  a  very  good  or  very 
poor  record. 

Another  factor  which  is  often  considered  as  influencing  the  ef- 
ficiency of  a  work  record  is  the  amount  of  schooling,  and  as  a  measure 
of  this  we  shall  use  grade  finished.  Table  144  shows  the  relationship 
between  the  grade  finished  and  the  estimate  of  the  work  record.  The 
correlation  ratio  of  .13rti.049  indicates  that  there  is  a  genuine  but  a 
small  relationship.  The  means  show  only  a  small  increase  in  the 
changes  in  grade  for  the  changes  in  efficiency  of  record,  but  the  trend 
of  the  average  grade  increases  in  regular  order  from  the  lowest  to 
the  highest  class  of  the  estimate.  The  factor  of  amount  of  schooling, 
therefore,  like  the  factor  of  age  at  starting  work,  probably  has  had 
only  slight  influence  in  determining  the  character  of  the  work  record  in 
the  case  of  the  women  under  consideration. 

There  is  still  another  factor  which  may  have  a  significant  relation- 
ship to  the  estimate  of  the  work  record,  and  that  is  the  estimate  of 
conditions  in  the  home  during  childhood  and  adolescence.  A  girl 
brought  up  in  the  lowest  kind  of  home  surroundings  may  be  made  rela- 
tively much  more  incompetent  for  good  work  later  on  by  these  condi- 
tions than  she  would  be  fitted  for  good  work  by  a  long  period  of 
schooling,  for  example.  Table  145  presents  the  coefficient  of  contin- 
gency of  the  estimate  of  the  work  record  with  the  estimate  of  home 
conditions,  and  shows  by  the  coefficient  of  C=:.24  that  there  is  a  small 
relationship  between  the  two  factors,  with  a  tendency  for  those  with 


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375 


376     STUDY  OF  WOMI'.N  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

good  home  conditions  to  have  a  better  work  record  than  those  with  poor 
home  conchtions. 

TABLE  145 

Contingency  of  Estimate  of  Work  Record  with  Estimate  of 
Home  Conditions 


Estimate  of  Work  Record 

Total 

Very  Poor 

Poor 

Fair 

Good 

Very  Good 

c 
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M 

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Very  poor 

Poor 

Fair 

Good 

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7 
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32 
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230 

28 
2 

Total 

60 

167 

159 

57 

8 

451 

Coefficient  of  contingency  of  estimate  of  work  record  with  estimate  of  home 
conditions,  C  =  .  24 

If  we  summarize  the  factors  we  have  considered  which  might  have 
a  possible  causal  influence  in  determining  the  kind  of  work  record,  we 
find  that  there  are  no  very  high  relationships  demonstrable  but  that 
each  factor  has  a  slight  and  probably  significant  relationship  in  the  de- 
termination of  the  efficiency  of  the  work  record.  These  low  relation- 
ships will  be  noted  again  briefly. 

1.  There  is  a  small  relationship  between  the  estimate  of  the  work 
record  and  the  nature  of  prevailing  work,  indicating  that  there  is  a 
tendency  for  those  who  do  certain  kinds  of  work  to  have  a  more 
satisfactory  work  history  than  those  doing  other  kinds  of  work. 

2.  There  is  a  still  smaller  relationship  between  the  estimate  of  the 
work  record  and  the  kind  of  work  in  the  first  job  indicating  that  there 
is  a  slight  tendency  for  those  who  first  go  into  certain  kinds  of  work 
to  have  more  efficient  w^ork  records  than  those  who  start  in  with  other 
work. 

3.  There  is  only  a  small  relationship  between  the  age  at  starting 
work  and  the  estimate  of  the  work  record  with  a  tendency  for  those 
who  start  work  earliest  to  do  the  least  satisfactory  work  after  that. 

4.  The  element  of  grade  finished  in  school  has  a  small  relationship 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY        377 

to  the  estimate  of  the  work  record,  and  indicates  that  there  is  a  slight 
tendency  for  those  who  have  finished  more  grades  in  school  to  do' 
better  work  than  those  who  have  had  less  schooling. 

5.  The  relationship  between  estimate  of  work  record  and  estimate 
of  home  conditions  is  small  and  indicates  that  the  factor  of  good  or 
poor  home  conditions,  though  they  may  effect  to  some  extent  the 
efficiency  of  the  work  record,  do  not  do  so  to  any  marked  degree. 

SUMMARY 

From  the  data  which  have  been  presented  in  this  chapter  and  which 
have  aimed  to  show  the  development  of  the  occupational  histories  of  587 
delinquent  women,  from  the  age  at  starting  work  to  the  estimate  which 
summarizes  the  most  important  factors  of  the  entire  work  record,  we 
can  not  draw  as  definite  conclusions  as  we  should  like  because  of  tlie 
difficulty  of  obtaining  comparative  data  for  the  general  female  popula- 
tion of  New  York  State.  We  may  note,  however,  the  main  factors  we 
have  observed  in  the  work  records  of  this  group  of  delinquent  women. 

First  of  all,  we  find  that  our  group  of  women  has  14.8  per  cent 
starting  work  before  they  were  fourteen,  while  the  general  female 
population  has  only  0.1  of  a  per  cent  working  between  ten  and  fourteen 
years  of  age.  This  indicates  a  trend  for  these  delinquent  women  to 
go  to  work  earlier  than  the  general  female  population  in  New  York 
State.  The  age  at  starting  work,  however,  allowing  for  the  factor  of 
present  age,  seems  to  have  no  significant  relationship  to  the  age  at 
first  conviction. 

Data  offered  on  the  kind  of  work  done  show  that  the  domestic  serv- 
ice workers  have  much  more  than  their  expected  percentage,  if  com- 
pared with  the  vv^omen  over  fifteen  in  New  York  State.  The  vaudeville 
performers,  also,  have  a  larger  percentage  among  the  delinquents,  while 
the  more  skilled  workers,  such  as  those  in  clerical  work  and  profes- 
sional service,  have  a  much  smaller  representation  among  the  delin- 
quent group  than  among  the  general  population.  The  same  trend  has 
been  found  in  other  studies,  particularly  that  of  Miss  Mary  Conyng- 
ton,  in  the  series  of  "Woman  and  Child  Wage-earners  in  the  United 
States."^''  A  correlation  between  grade  finished  and  nature  of  workil 
shows  that  there  is  a  significant  relationship  in  the  tendency  of  the 
occupational  groups  to  differ  in  respect  to  school  attainment.  The 
domestic  service  workers  have  reached  a  lower  average  grade  than  the 
women  in  any  other  occupations  except  charwomen  and  the  miscel- 
''  Op.  cit..  p.  30. 


378     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

laneous  group,  both  of  which  have  too  small  numbers  to  be  significant. 

One  of  the  most  striking  facts  in  observing  the  nature  of  work  is 
to  find  how  large  a  part  of  the  women  were  idle  at  the  time  they  com- 
mitted the  offenses  which  led  to  both  their  first  and  present  convictions. 
This  tendency  has  also  been  noted  by  Miss  Conyngton  --  and  by  Dr. 
Glucck  in  a  study  of  male  felons  in  Sing  Sing.^'' 

The  study  of  wage  in  our  groups  is  difficult  because  the  women  are 
of  varying  ages  and  their  work  records  cover  different  periods  of 
time.  Recognizing  this  unavoidable  difficulty,  we  have,  however,  com- 
puted the  average  wage  for  the  prevailing  work  of  those  in  occupa- 
tions other  than  housework,  and  find  by  comparing  this  with  certain 
scattering  wage  studies  in  specified  employments  that  the  women  in 
our  group  probably  earned  no  less  than  the  women  in  the  occupations 
noted.  From  the  figures  given  in  the  reports  used  no  exact  compari- 
son is  possible,  but  in  general  we  may  note  that  the  average  wage  of 
the  delinquents  is  probably  not  so  low  as  to  be  directly  accountable 
for  their  getting  into  difficulties  with  the  law. 

In  a  correlation  between  grade  finished  and  average  weekly  wage 
for  prevailing  work  there  seems  to  be  a  significant  relationship,  with 
a  tendency  for  both  the  domestic  service  workers  and  those  in  occu- 
pations other  than  domestic  service  to  receive  a  higher  average  wage  if 
they  have  finished  the  higher  grades.  No  significant  difference  was 
demonstrable  in  a  correlation  between  grade  finished  and  first  wage. 

Referring  to  the  correlation  between  average  weekly  wage  and 
number  of  convictions,  we  find  no  evidence  of  a  significant  relation- 
ship in  the  case  of  women  in  domestic  service,  and  evidence  of  only 
a  slight  degree  of  association,  in  the  direction  of  negative  correlation, 
for  women  in  other  occupations.  The  striking  relationship  which 
might  be  anticipated  between  proved  earning  capacity  and  degree  of 
recidivism  is  notably  lacking. 

In  summarizing  the  regularity  of  work  we  have  used  an  estimate 
which  shows  that  60.9  per  cent  of  the  women  have  worked  half  of 
the  time  or  less,  while  only  3.5  per  cent  have  worked  nearly  all  of  the 
time.  Upon  applying  this  estimate  to  the  color  and  nativity  groups  we 
find  that  the  foreign  born  have  worked  with  much  more  regularity, 
while  the  native  colored  have  the  poorest  showing  in  this  respect. 

A  summary  of  all  of  the  factors  in  the  work  record  is  made  in 
the  estimate  of  the  work  record,  which  indicates  that  on  the  whole  the 

■^  Op.  cit,  pp.  46-47. 
"  Op.  cit.,  p.  138. 


OCCUPATIONAL  HISTORY  AND  EFFICIENCY       379 

work  records  are  poor,  only  14.0  per  cent  of  the  total  group  falling  in 
the  class  above  mediocre,  while  49.7  per  cent  fall  in  the  two  groups  of 
very  poor  and  poor  work  records.  Here,  also,  the  foreign  born  show 
better  work  records  than  either  the  native  white  or  native  colored. 

In  an  attempt  to  find  what  factors  in  the  personal  histories  of  these 
women  have  a  significant  relationship  to  the  efficiency  of  the  work 
records,  we  have  computed  the  correlation  between  estimate  of  work 
record  and  age  at  starting  work,  grade  finished  in  school  and  estimate 
of  early  home  conditions.  In  each  of  these  correlations  a  very  small 
but  probably  significant  relationship  is  demonstrable.  The  relationship 
is  so  small,  however,  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  say  any  real  causal 
influence  existed. 

On  the  whole,  the  records  show,  for  the  most  part,  poor  ability, 
great  irregularity,  and  a  low  wage,  though  probably  no  lower  wage  than 
the  bulk  of  unskilled  workers  in  the  same  occupations  outside  are 
earning.  It  would  seem  that  the  delinquents  in  this  study  are  drawn 
almost  entirely  from  this  large  class  of  the  unskilled  workers,  but  that 
this  fact  is  not,  as  might  be  argued  by  the  Socialist  School,  the  funda- 
mental cause  of  the  delinquency.  We  have  noted  elsewhere  the  low 
grade  attained  in  school  as  compared  with  the  majority  of  children 
who  have  been  in  public  school  the  same  length  of  time,  the  low  men- 
tality as  measured  by  intellectual  tests,  the  poor  home  conditions  and 
lack  of  training.  It  would,  therefore,  be  impossible  for  us  to  state 
that  the  economic  relations  of  these  women  are  in  any  sense  exclusively 
the  causative  factors  of  delinquency.  In  many  cases  there  is,  un- 
doubtedly, a  close  association  between  the  limited,  poorly  paid,  indus- 
trial opportunities  and  the  continuance  of  illegal  acts.  In  many  cases, 
the  economic  possibilities  for  the  father  or  mother  in  the  family  have 
been  so  poor  that  the  women  in  this  study  did  not  have  proper  educa- 
tional advantages  as  children  and  were  forced  into  work  with  no  /*  k  *"  'V 
future  and  a  small  wage.  For  the  most  part,  however,  we  believe  thaty  \A'w\i4^U!/* 
the  elements  of  occupational  influences  and  low  wages  are  not  theX^  ^^^-"^ 
direct  and  immediate  causes  of  the  delinquency,  though  indirectly  J 
their  influence  is  great. 


CHAPTER  XII 
HISTORY  OF  SEX  IRREGULARITIES 

THE  study  of  delinquent  women  in  several  institutions,  some  of 
which  take  the  petty  offender  and  some  the  criminal  who  has  com- 
mitted the  more  serious  offenses,  shows  that  the  history  of  these  wom- 
en with  reference  to  sexual  irregularity  divides  itself  into  three  general 
classes.  First  there  is  the  professional  prostitute  who  earns  her  entire 
living  by  this  method.  Secondly,  there  is  the  woman  who  prostitutes 
herself  either  regularly  or  irregularly,  but  who  earns  money  in  addition 
to  this  by  stealing  or  by  other  illegal  methods.  And,  thirdly,  there  is 
the  woman  who  may  have  been  sexually  promiscuous,  but  not  for 
money ;  or  the  woman  who  may  have  lived  with  one  or  more  consorts 
for  any  length  of  time.  In  this  discussion,  we  shall  attempt  to  show 
the  status  of  degree  of  sexual  irregularity  among  the  total  group  of 
women,  and  by  institutional  groups,  giving  whatever  data  we  have 
been  able  to  gather  about  the  first  contacts  with  sex  life.  Since  the 
prostitutes  constitute  the  most  important  part  of  the  sex  problem,  they 
will  be  separately  considered  and  the  main  factors  in  their  social  his- 
tories compared  with  similar  factors  in  the  lives  of  prostitutes  studied 
elsewhere. 

FIRST  SEX  EXPERIENCE 

(a)  Age  at  First  Sex  Offense 

The  age  at  first  sex  offense  refers  to  the  time  that  the  first  illicit 
sexual  intercourse  occurred,  whether  the  woman  consented  at  that 
time  or  was  raped.  The  distribution  by  four  year  age  groups  given 
in  Table  146  is  for  the  age  at  first  sex  offense  of  the  women  in  in- 
stitutional groups.  The  range  of  years  runs  from  6  to  51  years  and 
the  age  group  from  14  to  18  years  has  the  largest  number  of  cases. 
In  the  lowest  age  group  Bedford  has  four  cases,  one  who  was  raped  at 
six,  and  one  at  eight  years,  and  two  who  consented  to  have  sexual 
intercourse  when  they  were  nine  years  old.  The  one  Auburn  case 
which  falls  in  this  group  was  nine  years  of  age  when  she  was  raped 
by  her  cousin  in  whose  home  she  was  visiting.     Only  one  case  of  the 

380 


HISTORY  OF  SEX  IRREGULARITIES 


381 


Probation  women  falls  in  this  lowest  age  group,  and  she  was  raped 
at  nine  years.  The  higher  age  groups  have  representatives,  of  course, 
only  in  the  institutions  which  have  women  of  the  older  age. 

The  comparison  of  the  means  and  standard  deviations  for  the  age 
at  first  sex  offense  shows  that  Bedford  has  the  youngest  mean  age  at 
first  sex  offense  with  the  smallest  standard  deviation  and  that,  in  order 
of  increasing  average  ages,  follow  the  Magdalen.  Probation,  the  Peni- 
tentiary, Workhouse  and  Auburn.  The  range  of  average  ages  is  from 
16.2  years  in  Bedford  to  21.4  years  in  Auburn.  The  average  age  at 
first  sex  offense  for  the  total  group  is  18.72db.312  years  with  a  stand- 
ard deviation  of  5.82±.221  years. 

TABLE  146 
*     AGE  AT  FIRST  SEX  OFFENSE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


] 

NSTITtJTIONAL    GrOUPS 

Age  at  First 

Total 

■"       Sex  Offense 

Peni- 

Work- 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

tentiary 

house 

Probation 

6  to  10  years 

4.4 

2.4 

1.9 

1.7 

10    "    14       " 

13.0 

2.4 

5.1 

4.0 

7.8 

6.3 

14    "    18       " 

54.4 

38.0 

55.9 

42.0 

39.2 

35.2 

45.7 

18    "    22       " 

22.8 

19.1 

27.1 

24.0 

25.5 

37.0 

25.9 

22    "    26       " 

3.3 

9.5 

8.5 

16.0 

7.8 

11  1 

8.6 

26    "   30       " 

1.1 

9.5 

1.7 

6.0 

3.9 

13.0 

5.2 

30    "    34       " 

1.1 

11.9 

1.7 

4.0 

3.9 

1.9 

3.5 

34    "    38       " 

2.4 

5.9 

1.2 

38    "    42       " 

2.4 

4.0 

5.9 

1.7 

50    "    54       " 

2.4 

.3 

Total .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

92 

42 

59 

50 

51 

54 

348 

]^ean 

16.19 
±.380 

21.4 

±1.27 

17.34 
±.416 

19.76 

±.864 

20.7 
±1.07 

19.67 

±.581 

18.72 

(Tm 

+  .312 

(J- 

3.65 

±.269 

8.25 
±.900 

3.20 

,±.294 

6.11 
±.611 

7.63 

±.756 

4.27 
±.411 

5.82 

<Ta ■ 

±.221 

(b)  Rape  or  Consent 

Table  147  shows  the  percentages  of  women  who  were  forced  and 
those  who  consented  to  have  first  sexual  intercourse.     In  this  table 


382     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

the  percentages  of  women  who  were  raped  vary  markedly  between 
institutional  groups.  The  Workhouse  has  the  smallest  percentage  who 
were  forced  to  have  sexual  intercourse  and  the  percentages  increase 
progressively  through  Auburn,  the  Penitentiary.  Probation,  Magdalen 
and  Bedford.  In  the  total  group,  22.6  per  cent  of  the  women  were 
raped  while  77.4  per  cent  willingly  consented  to  have  sexual  inter- 
course. A  large  part  of  the  22.6  per  cent  is  made  up  of  the  women 
falling  in  the  youngest  age  groups  shown  in  Table  146. 


TABLE  147 
RAPE  OR  CONSENT  AT  FIRST  SEX  OFFENSE 


Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women 

in  Institutional  Groups 

• 

Institutional  Groups 

Rape  or  Consent 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
hou.se 

Probation 

Total 

Rape 

Consent 

35.9 

64.1 

9.3 
90.7 

34.5 
65.5 

16.3 

83.7 

8.5 
91.5 

18.9 
81.1 

22.6 

77.4 

Total .... 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

92 

43 

58 

49 

59 

53 

354 

Classified  by  nativity  and  color,  the  distribution  of  age  at  first  sex 
ofifense  shows  that  the  range  of  years  for  the  foreign  born  is  from  12 
to  51  years,  for  the  native  white  from  8  to  39  years,  and  for  the 
native  colored  from  6  to  39  years.  There  is  a  concentration  of  cases 
in  the  lower  age  groups  of  the  native  colored,  with  only  7.3  per  cent 
who  committed  their  first  sex  ofifense  when  they  were  thirty  or  over. 
The  native  white  have  their  concentration  of  cases  in  the  age  groups 
slightly  above  those  noted  for  the  native  colored,  but  have  4.0  per  cent 
who  were  first  sexually  immoral  when  they  were  30  or  over.  The 
foreign  born,  on  the  other  hand,  show  few  cases  in  the  earlier  age 
groups,  and  have  13.3  per  cent  who  were  30  or  over  at  time  of  their 
first  sex  ofifense.  It  would  seem  from  this  that  there  is  a  tendency 
for  the  native  colored  to  get  into  sexual  difficulties  at  the  younger 
ages,  and  for  the  foreign  born  to  commit  their  first  sex  offenses  much 
later  in  life. 


HISTORY  OF  SEX  IRREGULARITIES 


383 


TABLE  148 

AGE  AT  FIRST  SEX  OFFENSE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  Classified  by 
Nativity  and  Color 


Nativioty  and  Color 

Age  at  First  i 

iex  Offense 

Total 

Total 

Total 

Native 

Native 

Foreign   Born 

Native  Born 

White 

Colored 

6  to  10  yet 

irs .... 

2.2 

2.0 

2.9 

1.7 

10    "    14       ' 

'     2.7 

7.4 

5.9 

11.6 

6.3 

14    "    18       ' 

'     33.3 

49.3 

47.8 

53.6 

45.8 

18    "    22       ' 

'     33.3 

23.5 

26.1 

15.9 

25.7 

22    "    26       ' 

'     12.0 

7.7 

8.4 

5.8 

8.7 

26    "    30       ' 

'     5.3 

5.2 

5.9 

2.9 

5.2 

30    "    34       ' 

'     6.7 

2.6 

2.0 

4.4 

3.5 

34    "    38       ' 

'     1.3 

1.1 

1.5 

1.2 

38    "    42       ' 

'     4.0 

1.1 

.5 

2.9 

1.7 

50    "    54       ' 

'     1.3 

.3 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  a 

ises 75 

272 

203 

69 

347 

(c)  Sex  Instruction 

Since  the  question  of  giving  proper  sex  instruction  to  children  is 
being  stressed  at  present  throughout  the  country,  it  is  of  interest  to  see 
how  many  of  the  women  in  this  study  were  instructed  by  persons  who 
were  competent  to  give  children  the  information  they  ought  to  have 
about  sex  matters.  Sex  instruction,  as  we  have  used  it,  refers  to  the 
minimum  of  even  the  simplest  and  most  general  statements  concerning 
reproduction  and  sex  matters.  In  many  cases  the  instruction  given 
by  the  mother,  for  instance,  was  nothing  more  than  a  warning  to  "keep 
away  from  the  fellows  now"  with  a  few  admonitions  about  the  con- 
sequences. We  have  included  as  sex  instruction,  however,  even  these 
crudest  and  most  unintelligent  attempts  to  tell  the  girl  what  things 
she  must  be  careful  about.  The  number  who  have  received  intelligent 
instruction  on  sex  matters  from  those  who  are  in  a  proper  position  to 
tell  them  is  much  smaller,  therefore,  than  the  number  v/e  have  included. 

However,  it  is  interesting  to  note  in  Table  149  the  large  percentage 
of  these  women  who  received  no  adequate  sex  knowledge  except  from 
girl  friends,  by  reading  or  by  observation.  In  the  total  group,  52.7 
per  cent  of  the  women  received  a  certain  amount  of  sex  knowledge 


384     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


TABLE  149 

SOURCE  OF  SEX  INSTRUCTION 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Source  of  Sex  Instruction 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

Members  of  Family 

45.5 

58.2 

57.6 

45.6 

60.5 

51.7 

52  7 

Mother 

29.3 
1.0 
5.1 

10.1 

37.3 

'4^5 
16.4 

45.5 

1^5 
10.6 

31.3 

^2 
13.1 

41.9 
18^6 

27.6 

13'8 
10.3 

35  3 

Father     

2 

Husband 

3.9 

Other  relatives 

13.3 

Friends 

46.7 

37.4 

28.7 

9.6 

3.5 

32.7 

26.2 

Consort    

5.1 

16.2 

15.2 

5.1 

5.1 

19'4 
9.0 
6.0 
3.0 

24  >2 
1.5 
1.5 
1.5 

9^6 

3^5 

5.2 

24.1 

1.7 

1.7 

1.8 

"Friends" 

15.3 

Girl  friends  in  school 

Girl  friends  at  work 

Girl  friends  in  institutions .  .  . 

5.0 
2.4 
1.7 

Teacher  or  matron  in  institution 

Physician 

Employer 

Reading  or  observation 

Self  or  "none'' 

4.0 
1.0 
2.0 
1.0 

'3^0 
1.5 

1.5 

10^6 
1.5 

'i!2 

42.2 

1.2 

1.2 
34^9 

1.7 

10^3 
3.5 

1.5 

.2 

.7 

17.7 

1.1 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

99 

67 

66 

83 

86 

58 

459 

from  members  of  their  families.  The  number  receiving  no  such  train- 
ing until  they  M^ere  told  by  their  husbands  should  be  thrown  out  of 
any  consideration  of  sex  instruction  that  was  of  value  to  the  child. 
Instruction  by  friends  includes  that  of  friends  met  on  the  street, 
friends  in  school,  at  work,  in  institutions.  A  teacher  or  matron 
in  an  institution  or  a  physician  are  legitimate  sources  of  information, 
and  the  three  cases  noted  who  were  instructed  by  an  employer  were 
young  nurse-girls,  who  were  very  intelligently  told  of  sex  matters  at 
the  time  menstruation  was  established.  As  a  whole,  we  may  divide 
the  total  group  into  (1)  those  who  were  given  sex  instructions,  even 
very  inadequate  instructions,  by  persons  who  were  in  a  position  to 
give  this  information  intelligently,  and  (2)  those  who  were  improperly 
instructed  by  girls  of  their  own  age,  or  by  reading  and  observation 


HISTORY  OF  SEX  IRREGULARITIES  385 

wliich  was  unsuitable.     Redistributed  in  tbis  way  for  tbe  total  group 
tbe  percentages  fall  as  follows: 

(1)  Sex  instructions  given  by  proper  source,  including  mother,  father 
and  other  relatives;  teacher  or  matron  in  institution;  physician 
and  employerr=51.2  per  cent. 

(2)  Sex  instructions  given  by  improper  source  or  too  late,  and  those 
who  had  no  instructions  except  the  things  they  observedr=48.9 
per  cent. 

By  this  division  it  appears  that  almost  half  of  the  cases  "picked  up" 
whatever  knowledge  they  have  of  sex  matters,  through  sources  which 
could  not  present  the  matter  in  the  right  way.  This  is,  we  realize,  a 
very  liberal  estimate  for  those  who  have  had  sex  instructions,  since 
many  we  have  included  in  the  first  group  as  instructed  by  "members 
of  family"  were  told  very  little  that  would  be  of  benefit  to  them. 

EXTENT  OF  SEXUAL  IRREGULARITY 

(a)  Distribution  by  Institutional  Groups 

If  we  proceed  to  a  discussion  of  the  extent  of  sexual  irregularity 
which  followed  these  first  sex  offenses,  we  may  note  in  Table  150  that 
the  first  class,  the  prostitutes,  have  the  bulk  of  the  cases  in  each  group 
except  Auburn  and  the  Penitentiary,  both  of  which  have  the  largest 
percentage  of  felons.  By  "prostitute"  we  mean  one  who  has  practised 
indiscriminate  sexual  intercourse  for  money.  We  have  included  here 
not  only  the  professional  prostitutes  who  made  their  entire  living  in 
this  manner,  but  also  the  irregular  prostitutes  who  supplemented  other 
earnings  by  prostitution.  The  second  class  which  we  have  called  "sex- 
ually irregular"  includes  women  who  may  h^^been  sexually  promis- 
cuous at  times,  but  not  for  money ;  or  women  ^^^  may  have  lived  with 
one  or  more  consorts  for  any  length  of  time.  "Occasional  sex  offend- 
ers" includes  those  who  may  have  had  illicit  sexual  intercourse  a  few 
times,  but  who  are  only  occasional  and  random  offenders.  "Never  a 
sex  offender"  includes  those  who  have  never  had  illicit  sexual  inter- 
course. 

Table  150  followed  by  Chart  XX  shows  that  the  percentages  of 
women  in  these  various  classes  vaiy  considerably.  The  Workhouse 
has  the  highest  number,  93.0  per  cent  of  its  total,  who  were  prostitutes. 
The  Probation  group  which  follows  has,  as  would  be  expected,  a  high 
percentage  .of  prostitutes,  since  the  court  from  which  we  selected  the 
Probation  cases  was  designed  particularly  for  women  of  the  prostitute 


386    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

class.  Bedford  has  the  third  highest  percentage  of  prostitutes  and 
the  Magdalen  the  fourth.  As  previously  noted,  the  Penitentiary  and 
Auburn  have  an  appreciably  smaller  prostitute  class  than  any  of  the 
other  groups,  but  the  percentages  of  w^omen  in  these  tw^o  institutions 
w^ho  fall  in  the  sexually  irregular  class  is  larger  than  in  any  of  the 
other  institutional  groups.  The  occasional  sex  offenders  have  a  smz.ll 
percentage  in  each  group  except  the  Workhouse,  which  has  none. 
Those  who  have  never  had  illicit  sexual  intercourse  constitute  35.5 
per  cent  of  the  Penitentiary  group,  23.4  per  cent  of  the  women  in 
Auburn,  9.2  per  cent  in  the  Magdalen,  7.0  per  cent  in  the  Workhouse. 
5.6  per  cent  in  the  Probation  group  and  2.0  per  cent  in  Bedford.  In 
the  total  group  we  find  that  66.2  per  cent  of  the  women  are  prostitutes, 
17.8  per  cent  sexually  irregular,  2.0  per  cent  occasional  sex  offenders, 
and,  14.0  per  cent  who  have  never  been  sex  offenders. 

If  we  divide  our  institutional  groups  into  a  more  general  classi- 
fication of  (1)  those  who  have  been  prostitutes  and  sexually  irregu- 
lar, and  (2)  those  who  have  been  random  sex  offenders  only  or  never 
sex  offenders,  we  find  that  while  Auburn  and  the  Penitentiary  still 
keep  the  lowest  places  in  the  first  group,  their  percentages  are,  never- 
theless, very  high.  That  is,  in  the  first  class  defined  above.  Auburn 
has  72.8  per  cent  and  the  Penitentiary  63.5  per  cent,  in  contrast  to 


TABLE  150 

EXTENT  OF  SEXUAL  IRREGULARITY 
Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups 


_^ 

Institutional  Groups 

Extent  of  Sexual  Irregulaij|^^W' 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

Prostitutes 

77.3 

17.8 
3.0 
2.0 

32.5 

40.3 

3.9 

23.4 

68.5 

21.1 
1.3 
9.2 

35   5 

28.0 

.9 

35.5 

93.0 
7.0 

87.8 

3.3 
3.3 
5.6 

66.2 

Sexually   Irregular     (not   for 
money) 

Occasional  Sex  Offenders 

Never  a  Sex  Offender 

17.8 

2.0 

14.0 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

101 

77 

76 

107 

100 

90 

551 

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387 


388    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

95.1  per  cent  in  Bedford,  93.0  per  cent  in  the  Workhouse,  91.1  per 
cent  in  the  Probation  group  and  89.6  per  cent  in  the  Magdalen.  The 
fact  that  in  our  total  group  only  16.0  per  cent  of  the  cases  have  never 
been  sex  offenders,  or  only  occasionally  so,  is  sufficient  evidence  that 
the  sex  problem  is  one  of  the  most  prevalent  ones  in  a  study  of  de- 
linquent women,  and  that  even  the  more  serious  offenders  are  a  large 
part  of  the  problem,  though  to  a  lesser  extent  than  the  petty  offenders. 
A  similar  comparison  of  extent  of  sexual  irregularity  for  color  and 
nativity  groups  shows  that  the  foreign  born  have  the  smallest  per- 
centage of  prostitutes,  the  native  white  the  next  larger  percentage 
and  the  native  colored  the  largest  percentage.  The  percentage  of  sex- 
ually irregular  women,  on  the  other  hand,  is  largest  in  the  foreign 
born  group,  next  smaller  among  the  native  whites  and  smallest  among 
the  native  colored.  The  foreign  born  have  a  very  much  larger  per- 
centage of  women  who  have  never  been  sex  offenders  than  either  of 
the  other  groups,  and  the  native  colored  have  the  smallest  percentage. 
If  we  divide  the  classes  of  sexual  irregularity  into  two  groups  as  we 
did  with  the  institutional  groups,  we  find  that  among  those  who  have 
been  either  prostitutes  or  sexually  irregular,  though  not  for  money, 
the  foreign  born  have  66.6  per  cent,  the  native  white  90.5  per  cent 


TABLE  151 

EXTENT  OF  SEXUAL  IRREGULARITY 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  Classified  by 
Nativity  and  Color 


Nativity  and  Color 

Extent  of  Sexual  Irregularity 

Total 
Foreign  Born 

Total 
Native  Born 

Native 
White 

Native 
Colored 

Total 

Prostitutes 

Sexually  Irregular  (not 
for  money) 

Occasional  Sex  Offend- 
ers   

46.1 

19.5 

3.0 
31.4 

75.1 

17.0 

1.6 
6.3 

71.8 
18.7 

1.8 

7.8 

84.7 
12.2 

1.0 

2.0 

66.2 

17.8 

2.0 

Never  a  Sex  Offender .  . 

14.0 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

XQ9 

382 

284 

98 

551 

HISTORY  OF  SEX  IRREGULARITIES 


389 


and  the  colored  96.9  per  cent.  From  any  combination  of  classes  of 
sexual  irregularity,  it  would  seem  that  the  foreign  born  have  a  much 
smaller  percentage  of  women  who  are  professional  prostitutes,  and  a 
much  larger  percentage  of  those  who  are  not  sex  offenders.  An  indica- 
tion of  this  was  found  in  Chapter  VI,  in  considering  the  nature  of 
present  offense  for  the  women  classified  by  nativity  and  color.  There, 
also,  it  was  evident  that  the  foreign  born  had  a  much  smaller  per- 
centage of  women  convicted  of  offenses  against  chastity  than  had 
the  native  white  or  native  colored. 


(b)  Length  of  Time  in  Prostitution 

In  order  to  show  the  range  of  time  during  which  the  women  we 
are  studying  have  been  prostitutes,  or  sexually  irregular,  we  present 
Tables  152  and  153.  Table  152,  showing  the  length  of  time  that  cer- 
tain of  the  women  prostituted  themselves,  covers  a  range  of  from  a  few 
days  to  26  years.  The  first  group — under  two  years — includes  all  who 
have  just  started  the  life  of  a  prostitute,  as  well  as  those  who  have  been 

TABLE  152 

TOTAL  LENGTH  OF  TIME  IN  PROSTITUTION 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Professional  and  Irregular  Prostitutes 
in  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Length  of  Time 

Bed- 
ford 

A  uburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

Less  than  2  years 

35.2 

29.6 

21.1 

5.6 

7.1 

30^4 

17.4 

17.4 

4.4 

8.7 
8.7 
8.7 

'4'4 

54.6 
20.5 

6.8 
11.4 

2.3 

'2'3 
2.3 

15.4 
23.1 

7.7 
7.7 
3.9 
15.4 
7.7 
7.7 
3.9 

'3^9 

'3'9 

16.7 

20.0 

16.7 

13.3 

10.0 

13.3 

1.7 

1.7 

1.7 

3.3 

1.7 

75.5 

14.3 
6.1 
4.1 

36  6 

2  to     4  years 

22  7 

4    "      6       "     

13  6 

6    "     8       "     

9  2 

8    "    10      "     

5  1 

10    "    12      "     

5  1 

12    "    14       "     

1.4 

2  2 

14    "    16      "     

2  2 

16    "    18       "     

1  1 

18    "   20      "     

7 

20    "   22       "     

1  1 

22    "    24       "     

24    "    26       "     

4 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100  0 

Number  of  cases 

71 

23 

44 

26 

60 

49 

273 

390     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

in  it  any  time  up  to  two  years.  The  number  of  years  in  prostitution  has 
the  longest  range  in  the  Penitentiary,  Workhouse  and  Auburn,  and  the 
shortest  in  Bedford,  the  Magdalen  and  Probation  where  the  average 
age  is  youngest  and  where  the  women  have  not  had  a  chance  to  be  in 
this  life  for  a  long  period  of  time.  The  very  much  shorter  range  in 
the  Probation  group  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  the  women  in  this 
group  are  supposed,  for  the  most  part,  to  be  first  offenders,  in  the 
sense  of  this  being  their  first  conviction,  and  are  chosen  from  the 
most  promising  women  who  go  through  the  court.  This  process  of 
selection  naturally  eliminates  the  older  women  who  have  been  prosti- 
tutes for  many  years  and  who  would  be  entirely  hopeless  on  probation. 
In  the  total  group,  the  concentration  of  number  of  years  in  prostitu- 
tion is  among  the  smaller  groups  of  years, — up  to  six  years. 

(c)  Length  of  Time  Sexually  Irregular 

The  total  length  of  time  these  women  have  been  sexually  irregular, 
including  in  addition  to  the  time  in  prostitution  the  years  sexually 
promiscuous,  though  not  for  money,  shows  that  the  range  of  years  by 

TABLE  153 

TOTAL  LENGTH  OF  TIME  SEXUALLY  IRREGULAR 

Per  Cent  Distribution  by  Institutional  Groups  of  Professional  and 
Irregular  Prostitutes  and  Those  Sexually  Irregular 


Institutional  Gbodps 

Length  of  Time 

Bed- 
ford 

Auburn 

Mag- 
dalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Proba- 
tion 

Total 

Less  than  2  years 

39.1 

27.6 
20.7 
4.6 
6.8, 
1.2 
1.2 

6.5 

45.7 

13.0 

10.9 

2.2 

4.4 

8.7 

4.4 

2.2 

'2^2 

51.7 

26.7 

6.7 

8.3 

3.3 

i'.i 

1.7 

26.1 

34.8 
6.5 
4.4 
2.2 
8.7 
4.4 
4.4 
4.4 

'2^2 

'2>2 

16.7 

20.0 

16.7 

13.3 

10.0 

13.3 

1.7 

1.7 

1.7 

3.3 

1.7 

76.5 

13.7 
5.9 
3.9 

36.9 

2  to     4  years 

27.4 

4    "      6       "     

12.6 

6    "      8       "     

7.4 

8   "    10       "     

4.3 

10   "    12      "     

4.3 

12    "    14      "     

2.3 

14   "    16      "     

1.7 

16   "    18       "     

1.4 

18    "    20      "     

.6 

20    "    22       "     

.9 

22    "    24       "     

24    "    26       "     

.3 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

87 

46 

60 

46 

60 

51 

350 

HISTORY  OF  SEX  IRREGULARITIES 


391 


two-year  groups  is  the  same  as  in  Table  152,  but  that  there  is  slightly 
more  of  a  concentration  in  the  lower  groups.  The  three  institutions 
made  up  of  women  of  older  average  age  have  a  longer  range  of  years 
in  which  they  have  been  either  sexually  promiscuous  (not  for  money) 
or  prostitutes. 

SPECIAL    STUDY    OF    PROSTITUTES 

(a)  Age  at  Entering  Prostitution 

The  part  of  the  sex  problem  in  which  we  are  particularly  inter- 
ested is  that  of  the  prostitute,  the  woman,  who,  for  the  most  part, 
gives  up  other  means  of  earning  money  for  this  easier  and  more  lucra- 
tive way.  The  most  of  the  data  we  present  for  this  will  be  for  the 
total  group  of  prostitutes,  since,  if  divided  by  institutional  groups,  the 
numbers  are  too  small  for  significant  use.  Bearing  in  mind  that  66.2 
per  cent  of  our  total  group  are  prostitutes,  wx  shall  proceed  to  the 
consideration  of  age  of  these  women  at  the  time  they  began  to  pros- 
titute.   Table  154  gives  by  three-year  age  groups  the  distribution  for  in- 

TABLE  154 

AGE  AT  ENTERING  PROSTITUTION 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Prostitutes  in  Institutional  Groups 


Institutional  Groups 

Entering 

Total 

Prostitution 

Peni- 

Work- 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

tentiary 

house 

Probation 

10  to  13  years 

5,3 

4.4 

.8 

13    "    16       " 

25.0 

21.1 

2.3 

13.0 

5.5 

11.7 

10    "    19       " 

30.6 

31.6 

40.9 

13.0 

16.4 

27.8 

27.3 

19    "    22       " 

27.8 

21.1 

31.8 

21.7 

25.5 

22.2 

26.1 

22    "    25       " 

6.9 

5.3 

18.2 

30.4 

12.7 

19,4 

14.1 

25    "    28       " 

5.6 

5.3 

2.3 

12.7 

22.2 

8.4 

28    "    31       " 

2.8 

5.3 

4.6 

17.4 

5.5 

5.6 

5.6 

31    "    34       " 

1.4 

9.1 

2.4 

:U    "    37       " 

5.3 

7.3 

2.0 

M    "    40       " 

1.8 

2.8 

.8 

40    "    43       " 

1.8 

.4 

49    "    52       " 

1.8 

.4 

Total .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

72 

19 

44 

23 

55 

36 

249 

Mean  age  at  entering  prostitution. 


(Total  group) 20 .  68  ±  .  350 

5.53±.249 


392    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

slitutional  groups  of  llic  age  at  entering  i)roslituti(tn.  Tlie  youngest 
age,  ten  years,  apjjlies  to  a  woman  in  Auburn  wlio  has  had  a  long 
record  not  only  of  prostitution  but  of  other  illegal  acts.  The  one 
Penitentiary  case  in  this  lowest  age  group  was  only  twelve  years  when 
she  began  to  prostitute.  The  one  woman  in  the  oldest  age  group  was 
49  when  she  began  to  prostitute.  Her  husband  had  just  died  and  she 
knew  of  no  easier  way  to  earn  her  living.  The  numbers  in  the  insti- 
tutional groups,  as  seen  in  Table  154,  are  too  small  for  significant  use 
of  the  mean  and  standard  deviation,  so  these  are  presented  only  for 
the  total.  The  average  age  at  entering  prostitution  for  the  total  group 
is  20.68±5.53.     (See  also  Chart  XXL) 

Per 
Cent 


25  28  31  34 

AGE 

Chart   XXI 

Age  at  Entering  Prostitution 

Per  cent  distribution  for  total  group   (249  cases). 

This  average  age  at  entering  prostitution  is  somewhat  higher  than 
the  age  found  by  Dr.  Davis  ^  both  in  her  study  of  Bedford  prostitutes 
and  of  street  cases.  The  comparison  of  the  means  for  age  at  entering 
prostitution  are  as  follows : 

269   Bedford  prostitutes    18.7    years. 

1 106  street  cases    19.44  years. 

249  prostitutes  in  this  study  20.68  years. 

The  higher  age  at  entering  prostitution  for  our  group  is  probably 
due  to  the  fact  that  we  have  women  of  many  ages  from  institutions 

'  Op.  cii..  pp.  216  and  245. 


HISTORY  OF  SEX  IRREGULARITIES 


393 


which  have  varying  percentages  of  prostitutes.  Likewise  our  group 
contains  many  of  the  more  serious  offenders  who  did  not  become  pros- 
titutes until  later  in  life  when  that  became  incidental  to  the  other  illegal 
acts  which  they  were  committing. 

(1)  Age  at  Entcrinij  Prostitution  for  Nativity  Groups.  If  we  ob- 
serve the  age  at  entering  prostitution  in  the  nativity  and  color  groups, 
as  shown  in  Table  155,  we  see  that  the  range  of  years  for  the  foreign 
born  is  longer  than  for  the  native  white  and  native  colored,  and  that 
there  is,  therefore,  less  concentration  about  the  younger  age  groups. 
The  means  and  standard  deviations  show  that  the  average  age  at  en- 
tering prostitution  is  lowest  among  the  native  colored,  19.87±5.13. 
The  native  white  have  the  next  larger  average  age  at  entering  prosti- 
tution, 20.31  rb4.63,  while  the  foreign  born  have  the  oldest  average  age, 
23.0±7.87  years. 

TABLE  155 

AGE  AT  ENTERING  PROSTITUTION 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Prostitutes  for  Total  Group 
Classified  by  Nativity  and  Color 


Nativity  and  Color 

Age  at  Entering  Prostitution 

Total 

Total 

Total 

Native 

Native 

Foreign   Born 

Native  Born 

White 

Colored 

10  to  13  years  

10 

.7 

1.8 

.8 

13    "    16       "     

11.6 

11.7 

10  0 

16.4 

11  7 

16    "    19       "     

18.6 

29  3 

30.0 

27.3 

27.4 

19    "    22       "     

25.6 

25.9 

26.0 

25.5 

25.8 

22    "    25       "     

18  6 

13.8 

12.7 

14.6 

14.1 

25    "    28       "     

2.3 

9.8 

12.0 

3.6 

8.5 

28    "    31       "     

4  7 

5.9 

6.0 

5  5 

5,7 

31    "    34       "     

2  3 

2.0 

2.0 

3.6 

2.4 

34    "    37       "     

7.0 

1.0 

.7 

1.8 

2.0 

37    "    40       "     

4.7 

.8 

40    "    43       "     

2  3 

.4 

49    "    52       "     

2  3 

4 

Total    .    .    . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100  0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

43 

205 

150 

55 

248 

Mean 

23  0 
±  1  20 

20.20 
+  .333 

20  31 

±.378 

19  87 
±692 

20.68 

+  352 

(T 

7.87 

4.77 

4  63 

5  13 

5  54 

(Tff 

±.849 

+  .236 

±.267 

±.489 

+   249 

394     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

Chart  22  shows  graphically  the  ages  at  which  the  foreign  born  and 
native  born  entered  prostitution.  The  dots  indicating  the  means  and 
the  arrows  indicating  the  standard  deviations  illustrate  how  much 
older,  on  the  average,  the  foreign  born  were  when  they  began  to  pros- 
titute. 

Per 
Cent 


Native  born 


••  »  •  ^   Foreign  born 


10  13  16         19  22  25  28  31  34         37         40 

AGE 

Chart  XXII 

Age  at  Entering  Prostitution 

Percentage  comparison   between   native  and   foreign  born. 

The  differences  we  have  just  noted  are  crude,  however,  and  are 
not  of  great  significance  unless  we  can  demonstrate  v>^hether  or  not 
they  might  have  occurred  by  chance.  Accordingly  in  Table  156  the 
means  and  standard  deviations  of  the  age  at  entering  prostitution  have 
been  computed  for  the  native  white  and  native  colored  groups.  The 
difference  of  the  means  is  .44  and  the  difference  of  the  standard 
deviations,  —.51.  From  Table  156  we  see  that  the  former  differ- 
ence is  only  .56  times  the  standard  deviation  of  the  difference  and 
therefore  not  demonstrably  valid. 

Since  we  have  shown  that  there  is  no  valid  difference  between  the 
central  tendencies  of  the  native  white  and  native  colored  with  refer- 
ence to  their  ages  at  entering  prostitution,  it  will  not  be  necessary  for 
us  to  compare  either  of  these  groups  separately  with  the  foreign  born 
if  we  use  the  total  native  born  for  comparison.  Table  157  gives  us 
this  comparison  and  shows  that  there  is  a  large  crude  difference  both 


HISTORY  OF  SEX  IRREGULARITIES 


395 


TABLE  156 

NATIVE  WHITE  AND  NATIVE  COLORED 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Age  at  Entering 
Prostitution  for  the  Native  White  and  the  Native  Colored 


Native 
White 

Native 
Colored 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

(Tm 

20.31 

±.378 

19.87 
±.692 

.44 

.56 

3 

a 

(Tff 

4.63 

±.267 

5.13 

±.489 

-.50 

91 

6 

Cases 

150 

55 

of  the  means  and  standard  deviations.  The  ratios  that  have  been 
computed  show  these  differences  to  be  genuine,  with  a  tendency  for 
the  foreign  born  to  go  into  prostitution  at  a  later  age,  and  to  have  a 
wider  scattering  than  the  native  born.  The  differences  which  we 
find  to  be  valid  between  the  foreign  and  native  in  respect  to  this  part 
of  their  sex  life  is  of  particular  interest  since  it  was  shown  in  an 
earlier  discussion  that  the  foreign  born  have  a  much  smaller  per- 
centage of  prostitutes  than  the  other  groups  have,  and  also  because 
they  show  a  smaller  percentage  of  women  whose  present  conviction  was 
for  an  offense  against  chastity. 

TABLE  167 

TOTAL  NATIVE  BORN  AND  TOTAL  FOREIGN  BORN 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Age  at  Entering 
Prostitution  for  the  Total  Native  Bom  and  Total  Foreign  Bom 


Total 
Native  Born 

Total 
Foreign   Born 

Difference 

d 

0-d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

(Tm 

20.20 
±333 

23.0 
±1.20 

-2.80 

2.25 

82 

<r 

(Tff 

4.77 
±236 

7.87 
±.849 

-3.10 

3.52 

5000 

Cases 

205 

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HISTORY  OF  SEX  IRREGULARITIES  397 

(2)  Age  at  Entering  Prostitution,  and  Number  of  Convictions.  It 
may  be  of  value  to  know  whether  there  is  any  relationship  between 
the  age  at  entering  prostitution  and  other  social  factors.  It  is  of 
especial  importance  to  know  whether  there  is  any  tendency  for  those 
who  enter  prostitution  when  very  young  to  have  more  convictions 
than  those  who  became  prostitutes  later  in  life.  To  see  whether  there 
is  any  association  between  these  two,  Table  158  is  presented,  and  gives 
the  coefficient  of  correlation  between  age  at  entering  prostitution  and 
number  of  previous  convictions.  The  coefficient  of  correlation  .001  + 
.063  indicates  that  there  is  no  genuine  relationship  here.  Referring  to 
the  correlation  ratios  we  note  that  both  of  these  are  high  enough  so 
that  they  would  indicate  a  very  slight  degree  of  relationship  were  it 
not  that  the  lines  of  the  means  are  so  irregular  that  it  is  impossible  to 
locate  any  significant  trend  of  relation.  It  seems  probable,  therefore, 
that  any  relationship  between  the  age  at  entering  prostitution  and 
number  of  convictions  is  so  small  that  it  is  of  little  significance.  The 
very  slight  trend  which  may  be  observed  is  for  those  who  started  to 
prostitute  at  a  very  early  age  to  have  the  largest  number  of  convictions. 

(3)  Age  at  Entering  Prostitution,  and  Grade  Finished.  Of  con- 
siderable importance,  also,  is  the  association  between  the  age  at  en- 
tering prostitution  and  the  grade  finished  in  school.  Table  159  shows 
a  correlation  coefficient  of  .20±.066  indicating  a  significant  relation- 
ship, with  a  slight  tendency  for  those  who  began  to  prostitute  therfi- 
selves  at  the  youngest  ages  to  have  completed  the  lower  grades  only 
and  vice  versa.  The  line  of  the  means  of,  age  at  entering  prostitution 
on  grade  finished  is  so  irregular  that  it  is  difficult  to  find  any  definite 
progression  of  change  in  age  at  entering  prostitution  for  change  in 
grade  finished.  The  regression  line  of  the  other  ratio,  however,  grade 
finished  on  age  at  entering  prostitution,  shows  a  small  but  consistent 
trend  of  changes  in  grade  finished  for  changes  in  age  at  entering  pros- 
titution. 

(4)  Age  at  Entering  Prostitution,  and  Estimate  of  Home  Condi- 
tions.— We  might  very  well  expect  that  there  would  be  a  relationsnip 
between  the  age  at  entering  prostitution  and  the  estimate  of  the  early 
home  conditions.  This  we  find  to  be  the  case  in  Table  160.  The  cor- 
relation ratio  of  .29±;.067  indicates  that  there  is  a  significant  rela- 
tionship. Reference  to  the  mean  ages  at  entering  prostitution,  also, 
shows  that  the  average  age  at  entering  prostitution  for  those  who 
come  from  the  poorest  homes  is  16.5  years.  These  average  ages  at 
entering  prostitution  become  progressively  older  as  we  go  to  the  next 


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400     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

higher  classes  of  home  conditions,  indicating  a  definite  trend  for  the 
average  age  at  entering  prostitution  to  increase  in  years  with  changes 
for  the  better  in  early  home  conditions. 

(b)  Other  Social  Factors  in  Lives  of  Prostitutes 

Although  the  age  at  first  sex  ofifense  is  not  so  important  as  the 
age  at  entering  prostitution  because  it  may  be  a  random  or  uninten- 
tional affair,  while  the  other  has  intent  and  is,  in  most  cases,  a  delib- 
erate choice,  we  shall  consider  it  here  because  of  its  importance  in  rela- 
tion to  the  age  at  entering  prostitution.  The  age  at  first  sex  offense 
has  a  range  of  from  eight  to  forty  years  for  the  prostitute  group  with, 
however,  only  one  case  in  each  of  these  extreme  groups.  The  average 
age  at  first  sex  ofifense  for  the  prostitutes  is  18.46+. 30  with  a  standard 
deviation  of  5.36.  This  average  age  is  younger  than  the  average  age 
at  entering  prostitution,  20.68  years,  and  might  indicate  that  the  first 
ofifense  is  in  many  ways  only  casual,  but  that  often  it  undoubtedly 
serves  to  break  down  the  barriers  of  restraint  sufficiently  to  make  the 
more  serious  offenses  come  easily  later. 

If  we  proceed  to  other  social  factors  in  the  lives  of  the  prostitute 
group,  we  may  note  first  the  average  age  of  this  class  at  the  time  of 
the  present  conviction.  This  age  we  find  to  be  27. 13  db  .443  years,  with 
a  standard  deviation  of  8.46±:.313.  In  comparison  with  the  total 
group  which,  however,  is  heavily  weighted  with  the  prostitutes-  we 
find  that  the  average  age  of  the  prostitutes  is  younger,  that  of  the 
total  group  being  28.79  years  with  a  standard  deviation  of  10.13 
years.  Dr.  Davis'  study,  previously  noted,^  shows  the  following  com- 
parison for  average  age  at  time  of  present  conviction : 

647  Bedford  prostitutes  20.09  years. 

598  street   cases    22.66  years. 

365  prostitutes  in  this  study   27.13  years. 

This,  again,  shows  we  are  dealing  with  an  older  group  than  that 
studied  by  Dr.  Davis  and  that  the  age  factor  undoubtedly  enters  in  to 
make  significant  differences  in  the  most  of  the  cotnparisons. 

The  birthplace  of  the  prostitute  group  shows  the  following: 

Total  foreign  born  21.4  per  cent 

Total  native  born   78.6  per  cent 

Native   white    66.8  per  cent 

Native  colored   22.8  per  cent 

^  A  comparison  of  our  total  group  with  the  prostitutes  in  the  total  group  is 
obviously  of  little  significance  since  the  prostitutes  make  up  66.2  per  cent  of 
the  total. 

^Op.  cit.,  pp.  216  and  232. 


HISTORY  OF  SEX  IRREGULARITIES  401 

In  comparison  with  our  total  group,  the  percentage  of  foreign 
born  has  decreased  to  a  large  extent.  This  results  in  the  foreign  born 
prostitutes  having,  in  a  more  marked  degree  than  the  total  group,  a 
smaller  representation  than  we  should  expect  from  their  percentages 
in  the  general  population.  Dr.  Davis  found  among  the  Bedford 
prostitutes  24.11  per  cent  foreign  born,  62.75  per  cent  native  white  and 
13.14  per  cent  native  colored.'*  These  figures  are  not  at  great  vari- 
ance with  ours,  except  as  they  show  a  higher  percentage  of  native 
white  and  a  somewhat  smaller  percentage  of  native  colored. 

The  data  on  schooling  for  the  prostitute  group  show  that  the  aver- 
age number  of  years  they  have  been  in  school  is  6.82  with  a  standard 
deviation  of  2.71  years.  This  mean  is  slightly  larger  than  that  for 
the  total  group  in  which  the  average  number  of  years  is  6.50  with  a 
standard  deviation  of  3.05.  For  the  prostitute  group  there  are  4.5  per 
cent  who  never  attended  school  and  the  range  of  years  in  school  is 
from  no  schooling  to  thirteen  years.  If  we  observe  the  grade  finished 
in  school,  we  find  that  the  average  grade  finished  by  the  prostitutes  is 
4.74  with  a  standard  deviation  of  2.44.  The  frequency  distribution 
shows  a  range  of  cases  from  those  who  never  finished  the  first  grade 
to  two  women  who  finished  high  school.  One  of  these  women  who 
went  through  high  school  was  sentenced  to  the  Magdalen  on  a  prosti- 
tution charge;  the  other  is  in  the  Probation  group,  for  the  same 
offense.  Both  are  bright,  fond  of  pretty  things,  and  went  into  prosti- 
tution that  they  might  be  able  to  get  what  they  wanted  with  less  effort 
than  they  would  have  needed  to  expend  by  working  eight  hours  a  day 
and  earning  an  honest  living. 

The  work  record  of  the  prostitute  group  is  a  large  subject  in 
itself,  and  affords  an  interesting  field  for  detailed  case  studies.  Since 
this  is  not  practicable  at  this  point,  we  shall  give  the  same  type  of 
treatment  to  this  group  that  was  used  in  discussing  the  work  histories 
of  the  total  group.  The  age  at  starting  work  has  a  range  of  from  8 
to  58  years  for  the  prostitute  group  and  the  average  age  at  starting 
work  is  17.40±.351  years,  with  a  standard  deviation  of  6.23.  The 
percentage  starting  work  under  fourteen  years  is  16.6  per  cent,  almost 
exactly  the  same  percentage  as  for  the  total  group. 

Table  161  gives  the  kind  of  work  done  by  prostitutes  at  various 

times  during  their  work  careers.     The  kind  of  work  in  the  first  job 

indicates  that  the  largest  percentage  of  the  prostitutes  first  went  into 

domestic  service  and  the  next  largest  percentage  into  factory  work. 

*Loc.  cit.,  p.  198. 


402     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


TABLE  161 

KIND  OF  WORK  DONE  BY  PROSTITUTES  AT  SPECIFIED  TIMES 
DURING  THEIR  WORK  HISTORIES 

Per  Cent  Distribution  for  Total  Group 


Specified  Time.s 

Kind  of  Work 

In 

First  Job 

In 
Latest  Job* 

At  Time  of 

First 
Conviction 

At  Time  of 

Present 
Conviction 

Prevailing 
Work 

Domestic  service 

Factory  work 

40.8 
23.7 

2.8 

6.8 

10.7 

3.4 

4.5 

.6 

2.3 

.3 

1.7 

■2^5 

32.1 

27.0 

4.5 

12.6 
7.5 
5.4 
3.3 
.3 
2.1 
1.5 
1.2 

'2^7 

9.0 
5.5 
1.0 

1.9 

1.3 

1.0 

.3 

'^3 

'^3 
6.8 

69.0 
3.5 

9.2 
5.3 
1.4 

2.2 
.6 
.6 
.3 

"^S 

""6 

12.3 

64.1 

2.5 

40.8 
23  1 

Home  work 

3  9 

Restaurant  and  hotel 
work 

6  9 

Work  in  stores 

Vaudeville  performers. . 
Clerical  work 

9.6 
4.8 
3  6 

Professional  service .... 

Personal  service 

Charwomen 

.3 

2.7 

.6 

Miscellaneous 

Own  housework 

Idle 

1.5 

Never  worked 

2.7 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

355 

334 

310 

357 

335 

♦Includes  only  those  who  have  had  more  than  one  job. 

In  comparing  this  with  the  latest  work  done  we  find  a  decrease  in 
domestic  service  workers  and  an  increase  in  those  who  did  factory 
work.  The  kind  of  work  done  at  the  time  of  the  first  conviction  is 
of  particular  interest  in  showing  the  number  of  women  who  were  idle. 
The  per  cent  of  prostitutes  (69.0)  who  w^ere  idle  at  this  time  is  larger 
than  the  per  cent  of  the  total  group  (59.9)  who  were  idle  at  the  time  of 
first  conviction.  The  high  percentage  of  domestic  service  workers, 
with  factory  workers  having  second  place,  still  obtains  at  time  of  the 
first  conviction.  If  we  turn  to  the  kind  of  work  done  at  the  time  of 
the  present  conviction,  we  may  still  observe  the  very  large  percentage 
of  idle  women,  though  not  quite  so  many  as  at  the  time  of  the  first 
conviction.  The  percentage  of  women  who  were  doing  their  own 
housework  shows  a  fairly  large  increase  between  the  time  of  first  and 
present  conviction  and  would  indicate  that  a  certain  number  of  the 
women  had  married  in  this  interim.    On  the  whole,  there  seems  to  be 


HISTORY  OF  SEX  IRREGULARITIES 


403 


little  change  in  the  kind  of  work  done  during  the  time  between  these 
two  convictions.  The  prevailing  work  shows,  again,  the  high  percent- 
age of  domestic  service  and  factory  workers  in  the  prostitute  group, 
and  for  the  other  kinds  of  work  a  striking  similarity  to  the  percentages 
in  the  same  occupations  at  the  time  of  the  first  job. 

In  general,  the  discussion  of  the  kind  of  work  done  shows  prin- 
cipally that  there  were  more  women  in  domestic  service  than  in  any 
other  occupation,  and  that  the  factory  workers  have  the  next  highest 
percentage.  The  number  of  idle  women  at  the  time  of  the  first  and 
present  convictions  is  of  particular  importance,  especially  in  connec- 
tion with  the  estimate  of  regularity  of  work  which  will  be  considered 
later.  In  the  prostitute  group,  as  with  the  total  group,  we  find  a  very 
small  percentage  of  skilled  workers,  such  as  women  in  professional 
service  and  clerical  work. 

The  wages  which  were  earned  by  these  women  at  the  specified 
times  are  given  in  Tables  162  and  163.  Table  162  shows  the  range 
of  wages  for  women  employed  at  domestic  service  in  the  first  job, 
the  latest  job,  work  at  time  of  first  and  present  conviction,  and  the 


TABLE  162 

WEEKLY  WAGE  EARNED  BY  PROSTITUTES  AT  SPECIFIED 
TIMES  DURING  THEIR  WORK  HISTORIES 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Women  Employed  at  Domestic  Service  and 
Allied  Occupations  Where  Living  Was  in  Addition  to  Wage 


Specified  Times 

Weekly  Wage 

In 
First  Job 

In 
Latest  Job 

At  Time  of 

First 
Conviction 

At  Time  of 

Present 
Con\action 

Prevailing 
Work 

Living  only 

$1   to  $2 

2  "      3 

3  "      4 

4  "      5 

5  "      6 

6  "      7 

15.8 

8.8 

24.6 

21.9 

18.4 

4.5 

1.8 

1.8 

.9 

1.8 

10.0 

3.3 

10.0 

20.0 

22.2 
17.8 
7.8 
6.7 
1.1 
1.1 

10.7 
10.7 
14.3 
14.3 
17.9 
21.4 
3.6 
7.1 

7.7 
7.7 
11.5 
11.5 
19.2 
11.5 
15.4 
11.5 
3.8 

7.3 

6.5 

21.0 

21.8 

25.0 

8.0 

7  3 

7    "     8 

8 

8    "     9 

2  4 

9    "    10 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

114 

90 

28 

26 

124 

404     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


TABLE  163 

WEEKLY  WAGE  EARNED  BY  PROSTITUTES  AT  SPECIFIED 
TIMES  DURING  THEIR  WORK  HISTORIES 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Women  Employed  at  Occupations 
other  than  Domestic  Service 


Specified  Times 

Weekly  Wage 

In 

First  Job 

In 
Latest  Job 

At  Time  of 

First 
Conviction 

At  Time  of 

Present 
Conviction 

Prevailing 
Work 

$0   to   $1 

1.9 
1.3 

"^6 

1     ' 

2 

2    ' 

3 

2.5 

.6 

.7 

3    ' 

4 

14.6 

2.3 

5.3 

4    ' 

5 

14.6 

6.8 

16.7 

6.4 

12.5 

5    ' 

6 

12.1 

8.6 

16.7 

6.4 

11.9 

6    ' 

7 

15.3 

18.8 

10.0 

25.8 

13.9 

7    ' 

8 

8.9 

11.4 

13.3 

16.1 

13.2 

8    ' 

9 

8.9 

8.6 

3.3 

3.2 

10.6 

9    ' 

10 

2.5 

12.0 

13.3 

9.7 

6.6 

10    ' 

11 

3.2 

9.7 

10.0 

9.7 

5.3 

11    ' 

12 

1.3 

5.1 

3.4 
4.6 

3.2 
3.2 

2.0 

12    ' 

13 

4.6 

13    ' 

14 

1.9 
'1^9 

1.1 

.6 
2.9 
.6 
.6 
1.1 
.6 
.6 

3.3 
'3^3 

'3^3 

'3'2 
3.2 

'3^2 

1.3 

14    ' 

15 

.7 

15    ' 

16 

2.0 

16    ' 

17 

17    ' 

^8 

.7 

18    ' 

19 

IP    ' 

20 

1.3 

20    ' 

21 

.7 

23    ' 

24 

.6 

24    ' 

25 

.6 

.7 

?F>    ' 

26 

1.3 
.6 

'i.3 

2.9 
'".6 

3.3 

3.2 
'3'2 

4.0 

?1    ' 

2S 

.7 

31    ' 

32 

35    ' 

36 

1.3 

65    ' 

66 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

157 

175 

30 

31 

151 

average  wage  for  prevailing  work.  The  numbers  were  too  few  to 
justify  computing  the  means  and  standard  deviations  for  certain  ot  the 
wage  groups.  The  wages  show  a  wider  range,  however,  for  the  first 
and  latest  jobs  than  for  the  job  at  first  and  present  conviction  or  for 
the  prevailing  work.  The  one  woman  who  raised  the  range  to  $16  for 
the  total  group  (Chapter  XI,  Table  127)  is  not  a  prostitute  and  there- 
fore does  not  fall  in  this  group. 


HISTORY  OF  SEX  IRREGULARITIES  405 

The  wages  earned  by  prostitutes  who  were  employed  at  occupa- 
tions other  than  domestic  service  at  specified  times  show  a  range  simi- 
lar to  that  for  the  total  group  (Chapter  XI,  Table  128).  The  one 
prostitute  who  was  earning  $65  at  the  time  she  was  sentenced  to  Bed- 
ford was  a  dancing  instructor  in  New  York  City.  She  also  "picked  up" 
private  pupils  on  the  roof  gardens  and  made  a  great  deal  of  money  by 
teaching  them  how  to  dance.  The  absence  of  any  cases  earning  the 
lowest  wages  at  the  time  of  first  and  present  conviction  would  indi- 
cate that  the  women  who  have  the  lowest  wage-earning  capacity  drop 
out  of  work  at  those  times. 

As  we  should  expect,  from  the  percentages  of  women  who  were 
idle  at  the  time  of  first  and  present  convictions,  the  work  records  sl^ow 
great  irregularity.  The  percentages  of  prostitutes  in  the  five  classes  of 
•  the  estimate  are  as  follows : 

Worked  almost  none, 11.4  per  cent 

"  about    one-quarter    of   time    27.6 

"  about    one-half   of    time    27.6 

"  about   three-quarters   of    time    31.6 

"  nearly   all    of    time    1.8 

By  this  method  of  estimation,  it  appears  that  66.6  per  cent  of  the 
women  worked  half  of  the  time  or  less.  For  the  total  group,  the  per- 
centage who  worked  half  of  the  time  or  less  was  60.9,  even  with  the 
prostitutes  included  in  this  total.  "It  would  seem  that  the  prostitutes 
do  not  combine  with  the  kind  of  life  they  are  living  any  serious  at- 
tempt to  work.  This  is,  of  course,  obvious  after  talking  with  many 
of  them  and  after  working  over  their  histories  for  any  length  of  time. 
Sometimes  a  prostitute  has  a  nominal  trade  which  she  pretends  to  fol- 
low, in  order  to  protect  herself  in  case  of  arrest.  There  are  rare 
cases,  also,  of  girls  who  work  during  the  day  at  legitimate  work  and 
go  out  for  purposes  of  prostitution  occasionally  at  night  in  order  to 
supplement  their  earnings.  There  is  in  the  Bedford  group  a  girl  of 
eighteen  who  worked  during  the  day  in  a  department  store  for  $7  a 
week.  She  found  she  could  not  buy  the  clothes  she  wanted  for  that 
money  and  so  she  began  to  go  out  with  a  "friend"  and  then  with  an- 
other for  two  or  three  nights  a  week.  By  this  method,  she  was  able  to 
have  what  she  wanted,  and  she  was  able  to  make  her  mother  think  she 
was  earning  the  extra  money  in  the  store. 

The  estimate  of  the  work  record  shows  a  predominance  of  poor 
work.  The  prostitutes  distribute  themselves  in  these  five  classes  as 
follows : 


406     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

Very    poor    15.8  per  cent 

Poor    40.3     " 

Mediocre    35.3     " 

Good     8.1     "       " 

Very  good    6    "       " 

This  estimate  shows  that  56.1  per  cent  of  the  women  were  entirely 
unable  to  Hve  on  their  earnings  because  of  the  irregularity,  inefficiency 
and  low  wages  involved  in  the  work  record.  There  were  only  two  cases 
in  the  estimate  of  very  good, — one  in  the  Magdalen  and  one  in  the 
Probation  group.  The  latter  one  had  just  gone  into  prostitution  and 
was  arrested  the  second  or  third  time  she  solicited  a  man  on  the 
street.  As  a  whole,  the  work  records  are  poor  and  show  great  insta- 
bilityo^ 

In  considering  the  criminal  record  of  the  prostitute  class,  we  shall 
first  observe  the  age  at  first  conviction.  The  range  is  from  eight  years  , 
to  61  years,  with  eighteen  cases  or  4.2  per  cent  of  the  total  who  were 
convicted  as  juvenile  delinquents  under  sixteen  years  of  age.  The 
mean  age  at  first  conviction  for  the  total  group  is  24.69±.427,  and 
there  is  a  standard  deviation  of  8.12  years. 

The  offenses  which  caused  the  first  conviction  fall  in  the  prostitute 

group  as  follows: 

Ofifenses  against  the  Person  8  per  cent 

Offenses  against  Chastity    61.6 

Offenses  against  Family  and  Children   8     " 

Offenses  against  Regulations  for  Public  Health,  etc 6.2     "       " 

Offenses  against  Administration    of*  Government    

Offenses  against  Property   Rights    5.4    " 

General   Criminality     25.0 

The  offenders  against  chastity  have  the  largest  percentage,  with  rela- 
tively small  percentages  in  each  other  group  except  the  general  crimi- 
nality group  containing  the  semi- juvenile  offenders.  It  is  interesting 
to  compare  the  nature  of  the  first  offenses  of  this  special  group  with 
the  first  offenses  of  the  total  group  of  which,  we  must  remember,  the 
prostitutes  form  a  large  part.  In  the  total  group  the  offenders  against 
chastity  at  time  of  the  first  conviction  were  only  44.3  per  cent.  The 
offenders  against  property  rights,  on  the  other  hand,  had  18.8  per  cent 
of  the  cases,  while  among  the  prostitutes  this  class  has  only  5.4  per 
cent.  One  is  reminded  here  of  the  remark  so  often  made  by  many  of 
the  prostitutes  who  take  men 'to  a  furnished  room  or  a  hotel  but  never 
to  creep  houses  where  they  are  to  be  robbed :  "Well,"  they  will  say  in 
trying  to  justify  their  own  deeds,  "I  may  be  a  prostitute,  but  I'm  not 
a  thief.  What  I  get  money  for,  I  earn,  and  a  thief, — she  just  steals 
and  don't  give  nothing  in  return." 


HISTORY  OF  SEX  IRREGULARITIES  407 

The  number  of  convictions  for  this  group  shows  that  the  range  is 
from  those  who  have  never  had  any  previous  conviction  (39.8  per 
cent  of  the  cases)  to  one  woman  in  the  Penitentiary  who  has  had 
eighteen  previous  convictions.  The  average  number  of  previous  con- 
victions is  1.83±.135  with  a  standard  deviation  of  2.62.  The  women 
in  the  total  group  who  have  the  larger  number  of  convictions,  20  and 
31,  have  their  history  of  deliquency  complicated  by  excessive  alcohol- 
ism. As  noted  in  Chapter  VII  the  Intoxication  Group  in  the  Work- 
house, though  its  mean  number  of  convictions  is  about  four  times  as 
large  as  that  for  the  total  group,  has  only  four  instances  of  convictions 
for  offenses  against  chastity  out  of  the  212  convictions  for  the  total 
group. 

If  we  turn  to  the  early  home  conditions  of  this  group,  we  find  that 
in  the  total  estimate  the  homes  of  the  prostitutes  seem  to  be  poorer 
than  for  the  total  group.    The  distribution  is  as  follows : 

Very  Poor  Poor  Mediocre  Good  Very  Good 
Economic  Status  in  Early  Home   . .  5.5  39.8        42.1         12.2  .4 

Moral  Standards  in  Early  Home     ...        11.4  29.1         44.1         15.4 

Parental  Supervision  in  Early  Home       16.9  50.8        29.9  2.4 

Estimate   of    Early    Home    8.3  44.1        42.9  4.7 

As  with  the  total  group  the  lack  of  parental  supervision  seems  to  be 
one  of  the  most  striking  things.  The  economic  standards,  again,  ap- 
proximate the  total  estimate  more  than  any  other  factor  entering  into 
the  estimate,  which  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  economic  factor  is 
very  important  in  the  consideration  of  what  makes  up  a  good  or  a 
poor  home.  The  methods  of  making  up  the  estimates  and  illustrative 
cases  for  each  class  have  been  given  in  Chapter  IX. 

A  somewhat  isolated  item,  but  one  which  is  of  importance  because 
of  the  common  belief  that  excessive  drug  and  alcohol  using  are  com- 
mon among  prostitutes,  is  the  consideration  of  habits.  The  following 
distribution,  if  compared  with  Tables  32,  34  and  35,  Chapter  VII, 
shows  that  there  is  among  the  prostitute  group  a  larger  percentage 
of  women  who  use  alcohol,  drugs  and  tobacco  than  there  is  in  the 
total  group.    The  distribution  for  the  prostitute  group  is  as  follows : 

Alcohol  Drugs  Tobacco 

Non-users    49.6  77.2  67.1 

Moderate   28.3  ...  7.5 

Excessive    22.1  22.8  25.4 

There  is,  of  course,  much  overlapping  present  here,  many  of  the  same 
women  being  addicted  to  more  than  one  habit. 


408     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

VliNKRF.AL    DISKASli 

The  subject  of  venereal  disease  among  the  women  in  our  institu- 
tional groups  has  been  included  in  this  chapter  dealing  with  the  sex 
history,  because,  in  most  cases,  there  is  a  close  connection  between 
irregularities  in  sex  life  and  the  diseases  usually  resulting  from  this 
life.  There  are,  however,  several  exceptions  in  our  group  of  women 
who,  so  far  as  we  know,  have  not  been  sexually  promiscuous,  but  who 
have  contracted  syphilis  from  their  husbands.  Unfortunately,  we 
have  been  unable  to  obtain  adequate  data  for  comparison  on  all  of 
the  institutional  groups  regarding  the  amount  of  syphilis  and  gonor- 
rhea. The  Probation  women  were  given  no  blood  tests  and  we  have 
data  on  only  the  few  cases  in  this  group  where  the  clinical  manifesta- 
tions of  venereal  disease  were  so  evident  that  the  girl  had  to  be  sent 
to  a  hospital  for  treatment  during  her  probation  period.  These  cases, 
however,  are  too  few  in  number  to  use.  The  22  Penitentiary  women 
who  had  blood  tests  given  have  been  used  for  comparison  with  the 
other  groups,  though  this  is,  perhaps,  unfair  since  only  the  women 
were  tested  who  were  suspected  of  being  syphilitic  or  women  who 
were  in  need  of  other  treatment  and  to  whom  the  blood  test  was  given 
as  an  incidental  thing.  Each  of  the  cases  we  have  used  in  making  up 
Table  164  has  had  specimens  of  blood  taken  and  a  series  of  com- 
plement fixation  tests  performed  to  determine  by  the  Wassermann  test 
whether  the  reaction  was  positive,  that  is,  whether  there  was  evidence 
of  syphilis,  and  by  the  complement  fixation  test  for  gonorrhea  whether 
gonorrhea  was  present  as  shown  by  a  positive  reaction.  We  have 
considered  as  a  positive  reaction  all  reactions  of  4+,  3+  or  2-}-.  A 
doubtful  reaction  includes  1-f-  or±:,  and  negative  includes  only  those 
cases  in  which  there  was  no  reaction. 

Table  164  shows  the  percentages  of  women  in  institutional  groups 
who  had  positive,  negative  or  doubtful  reactions  to  the  complement 
fixation  tests  for  syphilis  and  gonorrhea.  The  Magdalen  has  the 
smallest  percentage  of  women  who  had  a  positive  reaction  to  the 
Wassermann  test  for  syphiHs.  This  is  probably  determined  by  the 
fact  of  the  Magdalen  being  a  private  institution  which  has  the  right 
to  refuse  any  cases  so  that  an  elimination  of  the  most  diseased  girls 
takes  place.  Auburn  has  the  next  larger  percentage  of  women  with 
a  positive  reaction,  and  this  w-e  might  expect  because  of  the  fact  that 
Auburn  has  a  small  percentage  of  prostitutes.  Bedford  and  the 
Workhouse  follow  with  the  next  largest  percentages  of  women  with 


HISTORY  OF  SEX  IRREGULARITIES 


409 


TABLE  164 

VENEREAL  DISEASE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  in  Institutional  Groups  by 

Results  of  Wassermann  and  Complement  Fixation  Tests 

for  Syphilis  and  Gonorrhea* 


Wassermann  Test 

Complement  Fixation  Test 

Institutional  Groups 

Pos- 
itive 

Nega- 
tive 

Doubt- 
ful 

Number 
of  Cases 

Pos- 
itive 

Nega- 
tive 

Doubt- 
ful 

Number 
of  Cases 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Penitentiary 

Workhouse 

36.0 
31.0 
24.3 
40.9 
39.3 

48.0 
62.1 
64.3 
59.1 
47.2 

16.0 

6.9 

11.3 

13 '5 

100 

58 
70 
22 
89 

2.0 
'3^6 

67.7 
68.6 

82.4 

68.7 

30.3 
31.4 
17.7 

27^7 

99 
35 

68 

"83 

Total 

33.9 

54.3 

11.8 

339 

1.8 

71.6 

26.7 

285 

♦Positive  includes  reactions  to  the  Wassermann  or  Complement  Fixation  Tests  of  4-|-,  3+,  or  2+. 
Doubtful  includes  reactions  of  1  -|-  and  +.     Negative  includes  only  -=-. 

positive  reactions  and  the  Penitentiary  has  the  largest  percentage. 
This  high  percentage  in  the  Penitentiary,  as  has  been  stated  before, 
is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  only  the  cases  which  were  suspected 
of  being  syphilitic  were  given  the  blood  tests.  In  the  total. group 
of  dehnquent  women  studied,  we  find  that  33.9  per  cent  have  a  posi- 
tive reaction  to  the  Wassermann  test  for  syphilis, — that  54.3  per  cent 
show  no  reaction  and  that  11.8  per  cent  give  a  doubtful  reaction. 

If  we  turn  to  the  percentage  of  women  in  institutional  groups 
who  show  positive,  doubtful  or  negative  reactions  to  the  complement 
fixation  tests  for  gonorrhea,  we  see  that  the  results  are  quite  differ- 
ent. To  explain  the  obviously  misleading  percentages,  we  might 
state  that  the  lack  of  positive  reactions  in  the  Magdalen  group  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  a  girl  who  is  suffering  from  gonorrhea  is  not  allowed 
to  be  kept  in  the  institution  and  is  transferred  to  the  City  Hospital  for 
cure.  We  were  able  to  obtain  no  records  of  this  test  for  the  Peni- 
tentiary group  and  found  records  on  only  35  of  the  Auburn  women. 
This  part  of  the  data  is,  therefore,  unsatisfactory  and  probably  quite 
unreliable,  except  for  the  Bedford  and  Workhouse  groups  where  re- 
turns of  this  test  were  made  on  approximately  as  many  cases  as  for 
the  Wassermann  test.  By  examining  the  vaginal  smears  it  is  also  true 
that  many  cases  of  gonorrhea  are  found  which  might  not  show  in  the 
blood,  particularly   if   the  girl  had   been  recently  infected.     As   the 


410     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

figures  stand,  1.8  per  cent  of  the  total  group  examined  gave  a  positive 
reaction  to  the  complement  fixation  test  for  gonorrhea,  71.6  per  cent 
gave  a  negative  reaction,  and  26.4  per  cent  a  doubtful  reaction. 

The  percentage  of  women  among  the  prostitute  group  infected 
with  venereal  disease  is,  as  we  might  expect,  higher  than  for  the  total 
group.     The  figures  for  the  prostitutes  are  as  follows : 

Wassermann  and 
Complement  Fixation  Tests  for: 
Syphilis  Gonorrhea 

Positive     42.5  per  cent       1.9  per  cent 

Negative    41.6     "       "      68.7    " 

Doubtful    15.9    "       "      29.4    "       " 

These  figures  show  a  large  percentage,  42.5  per  cent,  who  gave  a  posi- 
tive reaction  to  the  Wassermann  test  for  syphilis.  In  comparison  with 
466  prostitutes  studied  by  Dr.  Davis,^  all  of  whom  were  given  Wasser- 
mann tests,  it  appears  that  in  the  prostitute  group  we  are  studying 
there  is  a  larger  percentage  who  have  positive  reactions  for  syphilis 
alone.  The  figures  for  the  Bedford  women  in  Dr.  Davis'  study  are 
as  follows  for  the  Wassermann  reaction : 

Syphilis  Gonorrhea 

Positive    Zl ^  per  cent  29.0  per  cent 

Negative    58.6    "       "  50.0    "       " 

Doubtful    3.6    "       "  21.0    "       " 

In  this  connection  it  is  important  to  note  that  the  discrepancies  oc- 
curring between  our  group  and  other  studies,  in  the  matter  of  venereal 
disease,  are  due  largely  to  the  changes  in  laboratory  technique  for  the 
various  studies.  We  have  observed  in  one  institution,  such  as  Bed- 
ford for  instance,  that  the  reported  percentages  of  infected  cases 
varied  markedly  as  the  blood  examinations  were  made  by  one  or  an- 
other laboratory,  or  subjected  to  modifications  of  the  examination. 
This  undoubtedly  explains  the  much  higher  percentage  of  cases  of 
gonorrhea  found  in  Dr.   Davis'   study  than  among  our  cases. 

In  any  event,  the  percentage  of  women  in  institutions,  infected 
with  syphilis,  is  large.  It  is  appalling  to  contemplate  the  chance  for 
infection  by  many  of  these  women  who  are  promiscuous  in  their  sex- 
ual relations  and  who  have  no  moral  scruples  about  spreading  the 
disease  they  have  contracted.  An  example  of  the  harm  which  may 
be  done  by  one  person  infected  with  syphilis  is  found  in  the  history 
of  a  woman  known  as  the  "Leopard"  because  of  the  spots  on  her 
skin.     She  was  a  prostitute  in  Chinatown,  New  York  City,  for  years 

''hoc.  cit.,  pp.  189  and  190. 


HISTORY  OF  SEX  IRREGULARITIES  411 

and  contracted  syphilis.  She  allowed  herself  to  get  into  a  frightful 
state,  until  the  Chinamen  who  had  been  supporting  her  took  up  a  col- 
lection of  money  and  offered  to  send  her  to  a  hospital  for  treatment. 
She  refused  to  go  and  continued  to  have  sexual  relations  with  young 
boys  who  did  not  know  about  the  disease  and  who  were  attracted  by  her 
attentions  to  them.  She  undoubtedly  infected  a  great  many  persons, 
many  of  them  boys  whom  she  deliberately  chose,  knowing  her  condi- 
tion, in  order  that  she  might  show  the  Chinamen  she  was  still  able  to 
"get"  some  one. 

SUMMARY 

In  summarizing  the  data  that  have  to  do  with  the  history  of  sex 
irregularities,  we  have  seen  that  the  prostitutes  constitute_  6(3.2  per 
cent  of  our  total  group  and  that  those  who  have  been  sexually  irregu- 
lar, though  not  for  money,  make  up  17.8  per  cent  more.  Only  16.0 
per  cent  of  the  women  were  not  serious  sex  offenders.  These  per- 
centages vary  between  institutional  groups,  the  two  institutions  consist- 
ing of  the  largest  percentage  of  felons  having  the  smallest  percentage 
of  prostitutes  but  the  largest  percentage  of  those  sexually  irregular. 

In  a  compa>rison  between  the  nativity  and  color  groups  it  appears 
that  the  foreign  born  have  the  smallest  percentage  of  prostitutes  and 
the  largest  percentage  of  non-sex-offenders,  while  the  native  colored 
have  the  most  prostitutes  and  the  fewest, — only  two  cases, — who  were 
never  sex  offenders. 

In  considering  the  age  at  entering  prostitution,  it  also  appears 
that  the  foreign  born  do  not  begin  prostitution  until  a  later  age,  and 
that  there  is  a  valid  difference  between  the  foreign  born  and  the  total 
native  born  with  respect  to  the  age  at  entering  prostitution.  There 
seems  to  be  no  similar  significant  difference  between  the  native  white 
and  native  colored. 

A  rough  attempt,  because  such  information  is  hard  to  obtain,  to 
find  how  many  of  these  women  had  sex  instructions  from  any  one 
who  was  competent  to  give  them  such  training,  shows  that  48.9  per 
cent,  at  a  very  liberal  estimate,  were  given  no  sex  instructions  except 
what  they  "picked  up"  from  girl  friends,  from  reading  or  their  own 
observation. 

In  attempting  to  show  the  relationship  between  age  at  entering 
prostitution  and  other  social  factors  we  find  that : 

(1)  There  is  a  very  small  and  possibly  not  significant  relationship 
between  the  age  at  entering  prostitution  and  the  number  of  previous 


412     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

convictions,  with,  however,  a  tendency  for  those  who  enter  prostitution 
when  youngest  to  have  the  largest  number  of  convictions. 

(2)  There  is  a  small  but  significant  relationship  between  the  age 
at  entering  prostitution  and  the  grade  finished  in  school,  with  a 
tendency  for  those  who  entered  prostitution  at  the  earliest  ages  to  have 
finished  the  lower  grades  in  school,  and  vice  versa. 

(3)  There  is  a  significant  relationship  demonstrated  in  the  cor- 
relation ratio  between  age  at  entering  prostitution  and  estimate  of 
home  conditions.  The  mean  ages  at  entering  prostitution  show  a 
progressive  increase  from  the  lowest  class  of  the  home  conditions 
through  the  highest  class. 

In  the  data  which  have  been  presented  on  the  prostitute  class,  we 
have  shown  that,  for  the  most  part,  these  women  came  from  poor 
homes,  that  their  work  was  irregular  and  poor,  that  they  are  in  fairly 
large  numbers  addicted  to  drugs,  alcohol  and  tobacco,  and  that  they 
have  a  large  percentage  of  women  infected  with  venereal  disease. 
Detailed  comparisons  with  the  total  group,  regarding  schooling  and 
criminal  record,  particularly,  are  difficult  to  make  since  the  total  group 
is  so  heavily  weighted  with  the  prostitutes  who  constitute  66.2  per  cent 
of  its  number. 

The  venereal  disease  in  the  group  studied,  based  on  returns  from 
the  Wassermann  and  the  complement  fixation  tests  for  syphilis  and 
gonorrhea,  shows  that  there  are  varying  percentages  within  the  groups, 
giving  positive  reactions,  and  that  the  total  group  has  33.9  per  cent 
with  a  positive  reaction  to  the  Wassermann  test  for  syphilis,  54.3  per 
cent  with  no  reaction,  and  11.8  per  cent  in  which  the  reaction  was 
doubtful.  The  percentages,  stating  the  various  reactions  to  the  com- 
plement fixation  test  for  gonorrhea  show  1.8  per  cent  with  a  positive 
reaction,  71.6  per  cent  with  a  negative  reaction,  and  26.7  per  cent  with 
a  doubtful  reaction. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

MENTAL  CAPACITY:  COMPARISON  WITH  THE  GENERAL 

POPULATION 

THE  question  of  the  relation  between  criminality  and  jaigrital 
capacity,  or,  as  it  is  generally  conceived,  between  criminality 
and  mental  inefficiency,  is  one  of  primary  importance.  Goring's  judg- 
ment concerning  the  importance  of  this  relationship  is  well  indicated 
in  the  following  statement,  sunmiarizing  the  results  of  his  investiga- 
tions: 

"Our  final  conclusion  is  that  English  criminals  are  selected  by  a  phys- 
ical condition  and  a  mental  constitution  which  are  independent  of  each 
other — that  the  one  significant  physical  association  with  criminality  is  a 
generally  defective  physique ;  and  that  the  one  vital  mental  constitutional 
factor  in  the  etiology  of  crime  is  defective  intelligence."  ^ 

Other  equally  positive  statements  might  be  cited  from  many  sources, 
both  in  the  literature  of  criminology  and  in  that  of  feeble-mindedness.^ 
In  most  of  these  discussions,  however,  the  tendency  has  been  to  make 
general  statements  based  entirely  on  descriptive  data  concerning  the 
group  studied,  or,  and  this  is  more  unfortunate,  to  make  comparisons 
with  the  general  population  based  on  a  rather  vague  hypothesis  of  the 
mental  ability  of  the  "average"  non-delinquent  individual.  Where 
the  information  sought  is  concerned  with  the  inter-relations  inherent 
in  the  group, — such,  for  example,  as  the  relationship  between  an  in- 
dividual's mental  capacity  and  his  criminal  record,  it  is  of  course 
necessary  to  restrict  comparisons  to  the  group  studied,  but  where  the 
object  is  to  determine  whether  the  delinquent  group  as  such  is  to  be 
distinguished    from   the   general   population    with    respect    to   mental 

^Op.  cit.,  p.  263. 

^  See,  for  example,  the  following : 

Ellis,   Havelock.     "The   Criminal."     1895.     pp.    133-139. 

Aschafifenburg,  G.  "Crime  and  Its  Repression."  Trans,  by  Albrecht,  A. 
1913.     pp.  178-180. 

Tredgold,  A.  F.     "Mental  Deficiency."    2nd  Ed.     1914.    pp.  319-324. 

Goddard,  H.  H.  "Feeble-mindedness.  Its  Causes  and  Consequences."  1914. 
pp.  8-15. 

413 


414     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

capacity,  it  is  essential  that  we  have  reHahle  information  concerning 
reasonably  representative  samples  of  the  whole  population.  The  dearth 
of  such  information  affords  the  ready  explanation  for  its  almost  com- 
plete omission  from  the  literature.  Nevertheless  it  must  be  evident 
that  without  the  possibility  of  some  such  comparison  between  offenders 
against  the  law  and  the  rest  of  the  population  we  can  not  progress  far 
in  our  evaluation  of  the  significance  of  mental  inferiority  as  a  con- 
tributory factor  in  criminality. 

The  most  serious  effort  at  comparison  of  the  two  groups  from  this 
point  of  view  is  that  of  Goring,  who  finds  his  common  ground  in  the 
figures  giving  percentages  of  "weak-minded"  individuals  among  crimi- 
nals and  in  the  general  population.  On  the  basis  of  the  most  careful 
estimates  available  he  offers,  as  a  minimum  figure  for  the  percentage 
of  prisoners  who  are  weak-minded,  10  per  cent,  and,  as  a  maximum, 
20  per  cent.  For  comparison  with  these  he  cites  the  enumeration 
of  mental  defectives  made  in  1908  by  the  British  Royal  Commission 
for  the  Care  and  Control  of  the  Feeble-Minded,  in  which  they  esti- 
mated that  .46  per  cent  of  the  general  population  were  mentally  de- 
fective. By  these  figures  the  preponderance  of  mental  defect  among 
the  prisoners  is  strikingly  suggested. 

In  Chapter  IV  we  have  discussed  Goring's  use  of  the  method  of 
estimates  and  the  limitations  on  the  objectivity  of  this  method.  This 
point  applies  with  special  force  to  an  investigation  covering  as  many 
different  types  of  groups  as  are  included  under  the  general  population. 
A  further  factor  enters  in  to  lessen  the  certainty  of  the  comparison. 
In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Royal  Commission  performed  its  work 
with  the  utmost  care  it  necessarily  lacked  the  sort  of  opportunity  for 
the  direct  observation  of  each  individual  which  the  prison  situation 
makes  possible.  This  would  tend  to  produce  an  under-estimation  of 
the  number  of  weak-minded  in  the  general  population.  It  remains  for 
later  investigations  to  discover  whether  the  degree  of  difference,  which 
Goring  maintains  exists  between  the  two  groups,  represents  any  seri- 
ous degree  of  over-statement. 

The  psychometric  methods,  on  which  we  have  based  our  study,  do 
not  entirely  escape  the  limitations  discussed  above.  While  free  from 
the  subjective  variations  incident  to  the  method  of  estimates,  they  meet 
the  same  obstacle  of  inadequate  information  concerning  the  popula- 
tion at  large.  The  extreme  difficulty  of  securing  such  representative 
data  is  readily  apparent.  Through  the  mechanism  of  the  common 
schools  it  is  reasonably  possible  to  assemble  data  concerning  relatively 


MENTAL  CAPACITY  415 

unselected  groups  of  children.  But  in  adult  life  individuals  tend  to 
separate  along  very  definite  lines  of  cleavage,  so  that  when  we  at- 
tempt to  secure  unselected  adult  groups  we  find  ourselves  obtaining 
groups  of  business  men,  or  of  college  students,  or  of  factory  opera- 
tives, or  of  some  other  specialized  segment  of  the  population.  The 
measurement  of  intelligence  is  obviously  not  a  form  of  record  taking 
which  can  ever  be  included  in  a  general  census  enumeration,  which 
would  afford  the  only  complete  data. 

At  last,  however,  mass  data  of  importance,  if  not  of  conclusive 
finality,  concerning  the  adult  male  population  are  available  as  a  result 
of  the  examination  of  army  recruits  in  this  country  during  1917  and 
1918.  This  constitutes  our  most  satisfactory  standard  of  reference, 
in  spite  of  certain  limitations  affecting  the  interpretation  of  these  data, 
to  be  discussed  later.  Next  in  importance  to  these  are  the  data  ob- 
tained by  Dr.  Woolley  on  girls  of  sixteen  to  eighteen  years  of  age  who 
came  under  the  supervision  of  the  Cincinnati  Bureau  of  Vocational 
Guidance.  The  make-up  of  this  group  will  be  discussed  in  connection  ^ 
with  its  use.  Other  minor  groups  are  also  noted  for  comparison,  but 
are  far  more  restricted  in  their  significance  than  the  two  just  men- 
tioned. 

In  the  following  section  we  offer  such  data  regarding  non-delin- 
quent adults  as  have  been  presented  by  other  investigators  in  such 
form  that  comparison  with  our  material  is  possible.  With  the  data 
which  we  have  obtained  on  Test  Aggregate  as  a  measure  of  mental 
capacity  (see  p.  58)  we  have,  as  we  have  said,  no  possibility  of 
comparison  with  other  groups.  Its  use  is,  therefore,  restricted  to  that 
of  making  comparisons  within  the  delinquent  group.  Similarly,  we 
are  unable  to  utilize  the  most  comprehensive  material  available  from 
the  army  testing,  because  it  is  based  on  the  special  group  tests — alpha 
and  beta — designed  for  the  use  of  the  United  States  army  and  re- 
stricted to  such  use  during  the  period  of  the  war.  The  three  measures 
which  furnish  common  ground  for  comparison  with  other  groups  are 
the  Stanford-Binet  Scale,  the  Yerkes-Bridges  Point  Scale,  and  the 
tests  of  the  Woolley  series.^ 

In  our  comparison  with  outside  groups,  both  criminal  and  non- 
criminal,  we   have   restricted   ourselves    entirely   to    consideration   of 

'  We  shall  not  discuss  the  results  of  this  series,  since  an  extensive  compari- 
son of  results  obtained  from  a  group  of  Bedford  women  with  data  obtained 
by  Dr.  Woolley  from  working  girls  of  fourteen  and  fifteen  years  of  age  has 
already  been  published  from  this  laboratory.  See  Weidensall,  Jean:  "The 
Mentality  gi  the  Criminal  Woman."     1916. 


416     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

other  adult  groups,  that  is,  to  those  made  up  of  individuals  of  16  years 
or  over.  We  have,  therefore,  omitted  all  reference  to  the  excellent 
studies  made  by  Healy,  Williams,  Haines,  Grace  Fernald,  Kelly,  and 
others. 

COMPARISON   BASED  ON   STANFORD-BINET 

Because  of  the  special  importance  of  the  army  data  as  affording 
standards  of  reference  we  shall  consider  first  the  relationship  between 
the  results  obtained  with  delinquent  women  and  the  data  available 
from  the  army  testing.*  Common  ground  for  this  comparison  is 
found  in  the  Stanford-Binet,  which  was  used  with  both  groups.  The 
army  data  were  obtained  from  nine  camps  in  different  sections  of  the 
country.  The  groups  were  taken  at  random  as  they  came  for  exam- 
ination."' When  the  results  were  in,  records  of  individuals  born  in 
non-English-speaking  countries  were  rejected,  in  order  that  it  might  be 
certain  that  the  scores  were  not  affected  by  marked  language  handicap 
in  any  case.  Only  white  recruits  were  included  in  these  groups.  A 
total  of  653  Stanford-Binet  records  of  white  individuals  born  in  Eng- 
lish-speaking countries  was  thus  obtained. 

Before  proceeding  to  our  comparison  the  limitations  affecting  this 
material  should  be  noted.  The  group  under  consideration  is  at  least 
two  steps  removed  from  being  a  random  sample  of  the  total  white 
population  born  in  English-speaking  countries,  of  which  we  wish  to 
consider  it  typical.  In  the  first  place  there  is  the  uncertainty  as  to 
whether  the  group  of  653  is  itself  representative  of  the  enlisted  per- 
sonnel of  the  army.  Some  information  on  this  point  was  available, 
since  the  other  tests  which  were  used  so  extensively  with  the  army 
were  also  used  with  this  group.  On  the  basis  of  this  evidence  it  was 
felt  that  data  from  this  group  were  reasonably  representative  of  the 
army  as  a  whole,  at  least  in  so  far  as  this  was  expressed  in  terms  of 
the  central  tendency. 

In  the  second  place  there  is  uncertainty  as  to  how  far  the  enlisted 
personnel  of  the  army  represents  the  general  population.  The  fact 
that  the  personnel  of  the  army  under  consideration  was  assembled 
under  the  operation  of  the  Selective  Service  Act  tends  to  make  it 

*  For  an  account  of  the  results  of  the  psychological  examinations  given  in 
the  army  see  "Psychological  Examining  in  the  United  States  Army,"  Memoir 
of  the  American  Academy  of   Science. 

^This  is  important  as  distinguishing  these  data  from  the  much  larger  body 
of  Stanford-Binet  records  amassed  in  the  routine  of  the  army  examining  but 
obtained  from  men  who  were  conspicuously  low  in  the  group  tests.  The  latter 
material  is  obviously  valueless  for  our  present  purposes. 


MENTAL  CAPACITY  417 

more  representative  than  would  have  been  the  personnel  of  tne  army 
recruited  during  times  of  peace.  Even  so  there  vi^ere  selective 
processes  at  work,  the  effect  of  which  it  is  impossible  adequately  to 
evaluate.  Only  males  were  included,  and  these  fell  mainly  within 
a  certain  range  of  ages.  Moreover,  selection  took  place  which  pre- 
sumably did  not  occur  evenly  over  the  intelligence  scale.  From  the 
upper  levels  men  had  been  removed  by  selection  as  officers,  by  ad- 
mission to  officers'  training  camps  or  to  special  forms  of  service 
requiring  superior  ability,  and  in  numerous  other  ways.  From  the 
lower  levels  men  had  been  rejected  through  the  discarding  of  the 
obviously  defective  and  incompetent  by  the  local  draft  boards  and 
by  the  medical  examining  boards  at  the  various  cantonments.  These 
and  other  limiting  factors  prevent  the  army  data  from  serving  as 
an  exact  picture  of  the  general  population.  Even  if  we  might  assume 
that  elimination  had  been  equal  from  the  two  extremes  of  the  scale — 
an  assumption  which  we  have  no  justification  for  making— the  general 
form  of  the  distribution  curve  would  still  be  influenced  to  some  degree 
by  these  selective  processes. 

Even  in  view  of  the  limitations  noted  above,  however,  we  recur 
to  our  earlier  assertion  that  the  army  data  afford  our  best  indica-  j 
tions  at  present  as  to  the  mental  caliber  of  the  general  population. 
It  is  very  probable,  in  fact,  that  they  will  continue  to  be  our  best 
source  of  information  concerning  adults  for  some  time  to  come. 

With    reference    to    the    delinquent    group,    the    most    important 
limitation  to  bear  in  mind  is  the  fact  that  we  are  dealing  with  the 
delinquent  women  who  have  been  caught,  and  not  with  all  who  are  i 
delinquent.     Presumably,  those  who  have  succeeded  in  escaping  con- 
viction are  somewhat  superior  in  intelligence.     How  much  superior 
they  are,  we  have  no  means  of  knowing.     None  of  the  conclusions  r 
reached  in  this  chapter  should  be  given  wider  application  than  to  the' 
group  of  convicted  women  delinquents  of  New  York  State. 

Table  165  gives  the  percentage  distribution  and  constants  for  the 
army  group  examined  by  the  Stanford-Binet.  The  mean  mental  age 
is  here  shown  to  be  13.4  years,  a  surprisingly  low  figure  in  view  of 
Terman's  initial  assumption  that  the  average  adult  has  a  mental  age  ] 
of  16  years.^  It  requires,  however,  no  argument  to  show  that  the  ' 
group  of  adults  available  for  his  use  at  the  time  when  this  assumption 
was  made,   constituted   as   it   was   of   32   high   school   students   over 

"  Terman,  L.  M.,  etc.     "The  Stanford  Revision  and  Extension  of  the  Binet- 
Simon   Scale   for   Measuring  Intelligence."     pp.  49ff. 


418    'STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

TABLE  165 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  AS  MEASURED  BY  STANFORD-BINET 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  and  of  Army 
Group,  with  Constants 

White,  English-speaking  Cases  Only 


Mental  Age 

Delinquent  Women 

Army  Group 

19.0  to 

20.0 

.2 

.8 

18.0  to 

19.0 

.4 

5.2 

17.0  to 

18.0 

1.0 

7.2 

16.0  to 

17.0 

2.2 

8.3 

15.0  to 

16.0 

6.0 

9.6 

14.0  to 

15.0 

6.7 

U.8 

13.0  to 

14.0 

10.5 

10.6 

12.0  to 

13.0 

13.9 

12.4 

11.0  to 

12.0 

17.0 

10.6 

10.0  to 

11.0 

19.9 

10.1 

9.0  to 

10.0 

13.4 

9.5 

8.0  to 

9.0 

6.7 

3.4 

7.0  to 

8.0 

1.3 

.2 

6.0  to 

7.0 

.7 

.3 

5.0  to 

6.0 

.2 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

Number  of  cases 

447 

653 

Mean . . 

11.8 

13.4 

0-m 

+  .106 

+  .111 

(T 

2.24 

2.85 

CTa 

±075 

±.079 

sixteen  years  of  age  and  30  business  men  of  moderate  success  and  very- 
limited  educational  advantages,  is  very  much  further  removed  from 
being  a  random  sample  of  the  population  than  is  the  army  group  under 
consideration.  This  point  is  readily  admitted  by  Terman,  who  has 
re-formulated  his  views,  in  the  light  of  the  more  recent  data,  in  the 
following  statement  written  under  date  of  August  20,  1918,  which  he 
authorizes  us  to  quote : 

"It  has  become  evident,  from  the  results  of  psychological  work  in 
the  army,  that  'Average  Adult'  intelligence  is  considerably  lower  than 
the  score  of  16  on  the  Stanford  revision. 

"Because  of  the  numerous  factors  of  selection  operative,  I  hesitate  to 
venture  an  estimate  as  to  what  the  real  average  adult  score  is.  I  do  not 
think  it  is  below  14,  but  I  doubt  whether  it  is  much  above  this  figure. 


MENTAL  CAPACITY  419 

"Even  if  the  true  'Average  Adult'  score  were  known,  this,  of  course, 
would  not  tell  us  exactly  at  what  point  mental  growth  ceases,  because  there 
is  still  the  question  of  determining  the  true  average  score  for  unselected 
children  just  below  the  age  of  maturity. 

"I  believe  that  the  peculiar  and  unsatisfactory  conditions  under  which 
the  army  tests  have  been  made  tend  to  make  the  average  score  of  the 
recruit  lower  than  it  would  be  under  normal  testing  conditions." 

The  above  statement  shows  that  Terman  judged  the  army  data 
which  we  are  using,  and  which  constituted  a  part  of  the  data  before 


Army  Group 
Womea  DelioquenU 


MENTAL  AGE  n^l" 

Chart  XXIII 

Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by   Stanford-Binet 

Percentage  comparison  between  delinquent  women  and  army  recruits.  White, 
English-speaking  cases  only. 

him  at  this  time,  to  err  in  the  direction  of  under-estimation  of  the 
mentality  of  adults  in  general,  though  not  to  the  same  degree  that 
the  previous  figures  erred  in  the  opposite  direction. 

For  comparison  with  army  data  we  offer,  in  Table  165,  the  data 
on  the  white,  English-speaking  women  from  all  six  delinquent  groups.^ 
It  is  evident  from  consideration  both  of  the  distribution  and  of  the 
means  that  the  delinquent  grotip  is  inferior  mentally  to  the  army 
group. 

Comparison  of  the  distributions  is  facilitated  by  Chart  XXIII. 
While  the  range  of  the  delinquent  group  is  practically  coextensive  with 

'  The  various  groups  contribute  to  this  total  in  the  following  proportions : 
Bedford     Auburn     Magdalen     Penitentiary     Workhouse     Probation 
217  29  52  56  38  55 

It  is  evident  that  elimination  of  both  the  colored  and  the  non-English-speak- 
ing reduces  the  numbers  to  very  small  figures  except  in  the  case  of  Bedford. 
The  large  numbers  in  the  latter  group  are  due  to  the  fact  that  figures  on  the 
larger  Bedford  group  (see  p.  17)  were  available. 


420     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINOUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

that  of  the  army  group,  it  is  apparent  that  the  delinquent  group  is 
more  heavily  weighted  at  the  lower  end  of  the  scale  and  less  heavily 
at  the  upper  end.  If  we  take,  for  example,  two  arbitrary  dividing 
lines  and  consider  the  percentages  of  each  group  falling  (1)  below  10 
years  mental  age  and  (2)  above  15  years,  we  obtain  the  following 
figures : 

Below  10  years  Above  15  years 

mental  age  mental  age 

Delinquent    Women    22.1%  3.8% 

Army  group    13.6%  21.5% 

The  difference  is  quite  striking  in  favor  of  the  army  group, 
especially  for  the  comparison  of  percentages  of  individuals  who 
rank  high  on  the  intelligence  scale.  If  we  consider  the  proportions 
falling  in  the  lower  portion  of  the  scale,  in  comparison  with  Goring's 
figures  (see  p.  414),  it  is  at  once  apparent  that  our  figures,  while 
quite  convincing  as  to  the  fact  of  difference,  indicate  a  far  less 
extreme  degree  of  divergence  between  the  delinquent  and  the  non- 
delinquent  group  than  do  his.  Even  if  allowance  be  made  for  the  pos- 
sible slight  inferiority  of  the  present  army  group  in  comparison  with 
the  general  population,  no  such  extreme  variation  as  Goring  reports 
would  appear. 

Superiority  of  the  army  group  to  the  delinquent  women  ap- 
pears also  when  we  compare  the  means  of  the  two  groups.  (See 
Table  166.)  The  difference  in  mental  age  of  1.6  years  may  be 
accepted  as  valid,  beyond  any  reasonable  question,  since  it  amounts 
to  more  than  ten  times  the  standard  deviation  of  the  difference. 


TABLE  166 
MENTAL  CAPACITY  AS  MEASURED  BY  STANFORD-BINET 

Comparison  of  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Delinquent  Women 

and  of  Army  Group 
White,  English-speaking  Cases  Only 


Delinquent 
Women 

Army  Group 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean  Mental  Age .  . 

(Tin 

11.8 
+  .106 

13.4 
±111 

-1.6 

10.4 

00 

(T 

2.24 

±.075 

2.85 
±.079 

-    .61 

5.6 

00 

cr<7 

Cases 

447 

653 

MENTAL  CAPACITY 


421 


TABLE  167 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  AS  MEASURED  BY  STANFORD-BINET 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  by  Institutional 
Groups,  with  Constants 

English-speaking  Cases  Only 


Institutional  Groups 

Mental  Age* 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

19 

IS 

.4 

'".8 

1.2 

4.6 

2.7 

9.6 

11.5 

16.2 

21.2 

17.3 

9.6 

3.5 

1.5 

'4^7 

4.7 

14.0 

18.6 

18.6 

23.3 

9.4 

7.0 

"s's 

3.8 
15.4 
15.4 
17.3 
13.4 
15.4 
9.6 
5.7 

IS 
1.3 
3.9 

7.8 

11.7 

7.8 

11.7 

15.6 

19.5 

9.1 

6.5 

3.9 

'l.'4 
'4^1 

2.7 

9.6 

12.3 

15.1 

20.5 

19.2 

11.0 

2.7 

1.4 

.... 

1.7 

3.4 

6.7 

6.7 

11.7 

13.3 

16.6 

18.3 

18.3 

1.7 

1.7 

.2 

.4 

17 

16 

15 :.. . 

.8 
1.8 
5.1 

14 

5.6 

13 

10.4 

12 

12.9 

11 

16.0 

10 

20.2 

9 

15.2 

8 

8.0 

7 

2.6 

6 

.9 

5 

Total .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Cases 

260 

43 

52 

77 

73 

60 

565 

Mean 

Cm  ■  • 

11.2 
+  .136 

11.7 

±.270 

12.3 

±.287 

12.1 

±.283 

11.1 
±.253 

11.9 

±.285 

11.5 
+  .094 

2.19 
±.086 

1.77 
±.191 

2.07 
±.203 

2.48 
±.200 

2.16 
±.179 

2.21 
±.201 

2.24 

O'er 

+  .067 

*A  mental  age  of  5  here  signifies  from  5.0  to  6.0,  etc.     The  mid-value  of  the  intervals  are,  therefore, 
5.5,  6.5,  etc. 

We  note  also,  by  reference  to  Table  166,  that  the  variability  of 
the  army  group  is  wider  than  that  of  the  deHnquent  group  and  that 
we  are  justified  in  accepting  this  difference  as  vaHd.  This  is  especially 
important  in  view  of  the  fact  that  all  the  other  comparisons  which 
we  are  able  to  present  between  delinquent  and  non-delinquent  groups 
show  the  opposite  tendency  with  regard  to  variability  (see  Tables 
170  to  174),  that  is,  the  delinquent  group  shows  consistently  the 
wider  dispersion.  The  reduced  variability  of  the  other  non-delinquent 
groups  would  arise  naturally  from  the  fact  that  they  are  picked,  as 


422    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

we  have  noted  previously,  from  a  more  or  less  restricted  portion  of 
the  general  population. 

In  Tahle  167  the  percentage  distribution  and  constants  for  the 
various  institutional  groups  are  offered.  These  figures  apply  to  the 
actual  groups  as  examined,  except  for  the  necessary  elimination  of 
cases  handicapped  by  language  difficulty.  In  general,  throughout 
this  study  we  have  presented  the  institutional  groups  as  units,  without 
elimination  of  the  colored,  because  the  latter  constitute  an  integral 
part  of  the  institutional  population.  It  seems  desirable,  therefore,  to 
offer  the  data  on  mentality  on  the  same  basis.  It  should  be  remem- 
bered, however,  in  considering  the  figures  of  Table  167  that  all  groups 
except  the  Magdalen  include  colored  women.  The  final  column 
gives  data  on  the  total  English-speaking  group,  which  differs  from 
our  preceding  total  group  by  the  presence  of  the  colored.  Reference 
to  the  figures  show  that  the  difference  between  the  two  groups  is 
small.  The  explanation  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  colored  portion  of 
the  group,  though  appreciably  lower  mentally  than  the  white  (see 
pp.  480-4),  constitutes  a  relatively  small  proportion  of  the  total. 

Among  the  institutional  groups  two  are  of  particular  interest ;  the 
Bedford  and  the  Magdalen.  The  former  deserves  special  attention 
because  the  figures  offered  may  be  accepted  as  peculiarly  representa- 
tive of  the  institution  (see  pp.  39-40).  Not  only  do  they  cover  larger 
actual  numbers,  but  they  represent  a  longer  period  of  study,  and  were 
obtained  under  the  most  satisfactory  conditions  of  any  of  our  groups. 
Since  the  mean  for  the  Bedford  group  (11.2  years)  is  one  of  the 
lowest  two,  among  the  institutional  groups,  it  is  obvious  that  the 
Bedford  women  would  appear  even  more  convincingly  inferior  to  the 
army  group  than  did  the  delinquent  group  previously  considered. 
Table  168  shows  that  such  is  the  case.  (The  elimination  of  the 
colored  women  from  the  Bedford  group  would  not  affect  the  com- 
parison to  any  important  degree,  owing  to  the  small  numbers  of 
colored  cases.  The  mean  mental  age  for  the  Bedford  white  is  11.4 
years,  differing  from  the  army  mean  by  two  years.)  The  distribution 
of  the  Bedford  group  is  shown  graphically  in  Chart  XXVII  for  pur- 
poses of  another  comparison. 

The  special  interest  in  the  Magdalen  Home  is  based  on  the  fact 
that  it  ranks  highest  in  mentality  among  the  institutional  groups  on 
the  present  basis  of  measurement.  Comparison  with  the  army  group 
is,  therefore,  important  in  order  to  discover  whether  any  of  the 
groups   of  delinquent   women   reach  the  mental   level   of   the   group 


MENTAL  CAPACITY 


423 


TABLE  168 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  AS  MEASURED  BY  STANFORD-BINET 

Comparison  of  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Army  Group 
and  Bedford  Women 

English-speaking  Cases  Only 


Bedford 

Women 

Army  Group 

Difiference 

d 
0^ 

Chances  that  real 

differenre  does 

not  exist  are^l 

in: 

Mean  Mental  Age .  . 
Cm 

11.2 
±.136 

13.4 
±.111 

-2.2 

12.6 

00 

(T 

2.19 
±.096 

2.85 
±.079 

-    .66 

5.3 

00 

(J(f 

Cases 

260 

653 

which  we  are  accepting  tentatively  as  representative  of  acluUs  in 
general.  Table  169  presents  the  data  for  this  comparison.  The 
difiference  is  still  in  favor  of  the  "general"  group,  and,  although  the 
amount  of  difiference  is  reduced  to  1.1  years,  this  is  sufficient  to  justify 
the  assertion  of  a  genuine  distinction  between  the  two  groups.  Since 
there  are  no  negroes  in  the  Magdalen  group  no  qualification  of  the 
results  from  this  point  of  view  is  needed.  Again  the  army  group 
is  more  variable  by  a  significant  degree. 


TABLE  169 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  AS  MEASURED  BY  STANFORD-BINET 

Comparison  of  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Army  Group 
and  Magdalen  Home  Group 

White,  English-speaking  Cases  Only 


Magdalen 
Women 

Army  Group 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean  Mental  Age  . . 

fTm            

12.3 

±.287 

13.4 
±.111 

-1.1 

3.6 

5500 

rr 

2.07 
±203 

2.85 
.079 

-    .78 

3.6 

5500 

(T„ 

Cases 

52 

653 

424    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

The  evidence  at  hand,  therefore,  shows  all  the  delinquent  groups 
to  be  appreciably  inferior  mentally  to  the  army  group  and  to  have  a 
narrower  range  of  variability.  If  we  grant  the  probable  truth  of  the 
contention  that  the  army  figures  fail  to  do  full  justice  to  the  general 
population  with  respect  to  mentality,  it  is  apparent  that  we  have 
understated  by  at  least  a  slight  degree  the  amount  of  this  difiference. 
Of  its  existence  there  can,  we  think,  be  no  reasonable  question. 

We  have  previously  cited  the  figures  on  the  mental  ages  of  adults 
offered  by  Terman  (see  pp.  417-8).  Without  lingering  over  these  data 
we  may  consider  briefly  the  relationship  of  our  delinquent  women  to 
his  62  adults.  In  view  of  the  evident  superiority  of  his  group  to 
adults  in  general,  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  a  considerable  difference 
between  the  means  of  the  two  groups  in  favor  of  Terman's  adults, 
as  well  as  a  decided  difference  in  the  degree  of  variability  in  favor 
of  the  delinquent  group  (see  reference  to  latter  point,  pp.  421-2).  The 
constants  for  Terman's  62  adults  are  as  follows : 

Mean  Mental  Age  =  16.1    ±  .146 
a  =    1.15  ±  .103 

In  view  of  the  recognition  by  Terman  that  these  figures  are  not 
adequately  representative  of  the  general  population  further  elabora- 
tion of  the  comparison  is  unnecessary. 

COMPARISON    BASED    ON    YERKES-BRIDGES    POINT    SCALE 

Turning  to  the  figures  based  on  the  data  from  the  Yerkes-Bridges 
Point  Scale  we  discover  four  groups  of  non-delinquent  adults  avail- 
able for  comparison  as  follows :  ( 1 )  25  male  students  in  the  Boston 
Y.  M.  C.  A.,  (2)  25  mill  operatives,  (3)  109  Cincinnati  working 
girls,  (4)  a  combination  of  the  above  working  girls  with  78  girls 
who  had  continued  in  school.  The  first  two  groups  mentioned  can 
lay  no  claims  to  being  representative  and  will,  therefore,  be  con- 
sidered only  in  passing.  The  first  of  these,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  student 
group,  obviously  consists  of  superior  individuals  as  Yerkes  himself 
points  out.®  He  states  that  "each  of  these  individuals  had  had  a 
partial  or  complete  high  school  education,  and  several  of  them  are 
college  graduates."  The  mean  for  this  group  (94.66  ±  .926)  naturally 
falls  entirely  outside  the  range  of  means  for  the  delinquent  groups, 
among  which  the  Magdalen  shows  the  highest  mean  value  (76.58  ± 

'Yerkes,  R.  M.,  Bridges,  J.  W.  and  Hardwick,  R.  S.     "A   Point  Scale  for 
Measuring  Mental  Ability,"  1915,  pp.  91-92. 


MENTAL  CAPACITY  425 

1.65).  The  standard  deviation  on  the  other  hand  is  conspicuously 
low,  4.63 ±.685,  as  compared,  for  example,  with  that  for  Magdalen 
of  12.03 ±1.166.  This  narrow  variability  emphasizes  again  the  re- 
stricted range  of  selection  of  the  student  group  in  question. 

The  mill  operative  group  cited  by  Yerkes  ^  shows  no  such  obvious 
reason  for  being  considered  a  superior  group.  We  know  only 
that  they  were  mill  operatives  (male),  that  their  ages  fall  between 
17  and  27  and  that  no  one  of  them  had  had  better  than  grammar 
school  education  and  few  had  completed  the  work  in  grammar 
school.  The  group  is  too  small  to  have  significance  for  our  purposes, 
in  view  especially  of  its  lack  of  definition.  The  constants  are, 
however,  presented  herewith.  They  show  the  same  direction  of 
difiference  from  the  delinquent  groups  as  do  the  figures  for  the  student 
group  just  discussed. 

YERKES'  MILL  OPERATIVES 

Mean  Score  in   Points  =-  88.42  ±  1.64 
<r=    8.19  ±1.83 
Number  of  Cases  =  25 

The  data  from  the  Cincinnati  groups  of  girls  constitute  our  only 
useful  source  of  comparison  based  on  the  Yerkes-Bridges  Point 
Scale.  We  have  obtained,  through  the  courtesy  of  Dr.  Woolley,  the 
records  of  the  testing  by  this  scale  of  187  white  girls,  sixteen,  seven- 
teen and  eighteen  years  of  age,  made  at  the  Cincinnati  Bureau  of 
Vocational  Guidance.  This  is  composed  of  two  groups.  One  group 
of  109  was  taken  from  the  working  girls,  i.e.,  those  that  had  left 
school  at  sixteen  to  go  to  work,  and  one  of  78  from  the  school 
group,  i.e.,  those  that  had  continued  in  school  beyond  the  time 
when  they  were  legally  permitted  to  leave.  This  fact  in  itself,  Dr. 
Woolley  believes,  indicates  that  the  latter  is  a  superior  group,  and 
since  the  members  of  the  working  girl  group  were  picked  out  as  being 
somewhat  inferior,  she  considers  that  the  combined  group  "should 
make  a  fairly  good  average  for  the  whole  community."  Whether  or 
not  such  a  statement  is  entirely  justified,  we  are  interested  to  see  how 
our  data  compare,  first,  with  the  combination  of  her  groups,  and 
second,  with  the  group  of  working  girls  recognized  as  inferior.  All 
cases  in  the  Cincinnati  groups  had  completed  at  least  the  6th  grade. 
This  of  itself  would  tend  to  eliminate  the  very  inferior. 

Table  170  presents  the  data  on  these  two  groups,  and  also,  for 
comparison,  the  figures   for  the  white,   English-speaking  portion  of 

'  Op.  ciL,  pp.  90-91. 


426     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


TABLE  170 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  AS  MEASURED  BY  YERKES-BRIDGES 

POINT  SCALE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Delinquent  Women  and  of  Two  Groups  of 

Cincinnati  Girls — Working  Girls  and  Combination  of  Working 

and  School  Girls  —  with  Constants 

White,  English-speaking  Cases  Only 


Delinquent  Women 

Cincinnati  Groups 

Score  in  Points 

Working  Girl.'? 

Working  and 
School  Girls 

96-100 , 

.8 

6.1 

13.4 

18.4 

15.5 

16.7 

11.1 

7.7 

5.2 

3.1 

1.1 

.6 

.2 

2.8 

11.9 

21.1 

24.8 

16.5 

9.2 

8.3 

3.7 

"1^8 

13.9 

90-96 

27.8 

84-90 

18.7 

78-84 

16.6 

72-78 

9.6 

66-72 

5.4 

60-66 

4.8 

54-60 

2.1 

48-54 

42-48 

1.1 

36-42 

30-36 

24-30 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Cases 

478 

109 

187 

Mean 

71.80 
+  .608 

78.83 
+  1.07 

84.62 

(Tm 

+  .830 

(T 

13.29 

+  .416 

11.18 

+  .832 

11.36 

a  a 

+  .707 

the  total  delinquent  group.  The  distributions  of  these  groups  are 
also  shown  graphically  in  Chart  XXIV.  Inspection  of  the  chart  shows 
a  marked  difference  between  the  delinquent  group  and  each  of  the 
Cincinnati  groups.  We  are  at  once  impressed  by  the  greater  flatness 
of  the  delinquent  curve,  as  well  as  by  the  location  of  the  massing. 
We  note  that  the  dot  indicating  location  of  the  mean  falls  lower  in 
case  of  the  delinquents,  and  that  the  span  of  the  arrows,  showing  the 
range  of  the  standard  deviation  above  and  below  the  mean,  is  wider. 
It  is  noteworthy  also  that  the  range  of  the  delinquent  group  runs 
lower  than  that  of  either  Cincinnati  group.     So  marked  a  difference 


Per 
Cent 


Per 
Cent 


DELINQUENT    WOMEN 


WORKING  GIRLS  (Cincinnati) 


24     30     36     42     48     54     60     66     72     78     84     90     96     102 


Zl 


Per 
Cent 


WORKING  AND  SCHOOL  GIRLS  (Cincinnati) 


Chart  XXIV 

Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Yerkes-Bridges  Point   Scale 

Per  cent  distribution  of  delinquent  women  and  of  two  groups  of  Cincinnati 
girls:  (1)  working  girls,  and  (2)  working  and  school  girls.  White,  English- 
speaking  cases  only. 

427 


428     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

in  this  respect  undoubtedly  reflects  the  eHminations  from  the  lower 
portion  of  the  Cincinnati  group  involved  in  the  requirement  of  6th 
grade  completion.  Turning  to  statistical  comparison  to  determine 
how  far  we  are  justified  in  accepting  the  evidence  of  inspection,  we 
learn  from  Table  171  that  the  inferiority  of  the  delinquent  group  to 
both  of  the  Cincinnati  groups  is  established  beyond  any  reasonable 
question.  The  difference  in  variability  of  the  two  groups,  in  favor 
of  the  greater  spread  of  the  delinquent  group,  appears  also  to  be 
almost  certainly  valid. 

TABLE  171 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  AS  MEASURED  BY  YERKES-BRIDGES 

POINT  SCALE 

Comparison  of  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Delinquent  Women 

with  those  of  (i)  Cincinnati  Working  Girls  and  (2)  Working 

and  School  Girls  (Cincinnati) 

White,  English-speaking  Cases  Only 


Delinquent 
Women 

Working 

Girls 

Difference 

d 
0"d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

0-m 

71.80 
±.608 

78.83 
±1.071 

-7.03 

5.7 

CO 

(T 

13.29 
±.416 

11.18 

+  .832 

2.11 

2.3 

86 

<TcT 

Cases 

478 

109 

Delinquent 
Women 

Working  and 
School  Girls 

Mean 

0-m 

71.80 
±.608 

84.62 
±.830 

-12.82 

12.4 

oc 

(T 

13.29 
±.416 

11.36 

±.707 

1.93 

2.4 

107 

<Ta 

Cases 

478 

187 

For  further  comparison  with  the  Cincinnati  groups  we  offer  the 
data  for  the  several  units  of  the  total  delinquent  group  (Table  172). 
As  in  the  case  of  the  Stanford-Binet  comparison  the  Bedford  and 
the  Magdalen  groups  are  of  special  interest  to  us,  and  for  the  reasons 


MENTAL  CAPACITY 


429 


previously  given.     The  distributions  of  these  two  groups  are  shown 
graphically  in  Chart  XXV. 

Since  Bedford  ranks  mentally  as  one  of  the  lowest  of  the  de- 
linquent groups  it  is  to  be  expected  that  it  should  be  even  more 
clearly  distinguished  from  the  Cincinnati  groups  than  is  the  total 
white  delinquent  group.  Reference  to  Table  173  shows  that  even 
when  compared  with  the  poorer  of  the  Cincinnati  groups  the  Bed- 
ford group  is  inferior  mentally  by  a  significant  difference. 

TABLE  172 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  AS  MEASURED  BY  YERKES-BRIDGES 

POINT  SCALE 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Institutional  Groups,  with  Constants 
English-speaking  Cases  Only 


Institutional  Groups 

Score  in  Points 

Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

96-100 

90-96 

84-90 

78-84 

72-78 

66-72 

60-66 

.4 

3.2 

11  6 

13.3 

15.1 

19.6 

11.9 

9.1 

7.4 

5.3 

1.4 

1.4 

.4 

2'3 

20.5 

25.0 

13.6 

9.1 

13.6 

9.1 

2.3 

2.3 

2.3 

1.9 

5.7 

26.4 

24.5 

13.2 

9.4 

7.5 

5.7 

3.8 

1.9 

16'5 
14.0 
14.0 

15.0 
12.7 
7.6 
10.1 
6.3 
2.5 
1.3 

2.7 

9^3 
18.7 
13.3 
10.7 

9.3 
13.3 

8.0 
12.0 

1.3 

'8^5 

8.5 

22.5 

18.3 

12.7 

15.5 

8.5 

2.8 

1.4 

1.4 

.7 
5.3 
13.2 
17.0 
15.0 
15.2 
11  2 

54-60 

48-54 

9.4 
6  1 

42-48 

4  8 

36-42 

30-36 

24-30 

1.3 

.7 
.3 

Total .... 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Cases 

285 

44 

53 

79 

75 

71 

607 

Mean 

68.53 
±.811 

72.73 

±1.877 

76.58 
±1.650 

73.64 
±1.629 

66.61 
±1.706 

72.61 
±1.441 

70.44 

O-m 

±.563 

(T..       .. 

13.69 
±.535 

13.45 
±1.280 

12.03 
±1.166 

14.48 
±.908 

14.78 
±.972 

12.14 

±.928 

18.88 

(Ta   

±.360 

A  very  different  situation  exists,  however,  in  case  of  the  Magdalen 
group.  The  appearance  of  the  distribution  curve  (Chart  XXV)  is 
markedly  different   from  that  of  the  other  delinquent  groups,  with 


430    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


the  sudden  piling  up  of  cases  toward  the  upper  portion  of  the  scale. 
The  range  of  the  Magdalen  cases  extends  no  lower  than  that  of 
the  Cincinnati  groups.  The  mean  falls  lower  in  the  Magdalen  group 
than  the  mean  for  either  of  the  other  two  but  the  difference  is  not 


Per 

Cent 


Per 
Cent 


BEDFORD 


Chart  XXV 

Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Yerkes-Bridges  Point  Scale 

Per  cent  distribution  of  Bedford  and  Magdalen  institutional  groups — English- 
speaking  cases  only. 

great  enough  so  that  we  can  determine  by  inspection  whether  or 
not  it  might  have  occurred  by  chance.  From  Table  174  we  learn  that 
we  need  not  question  the  validity  of  the  difference  between  the 
means  of  the  Magdalen  and  the  combined  group  of  school  and  work- 
ing girls.     In  comparison  with  the  Cincinnati   working  girl   group 


MENTAL  CAPACITY 


431 


TABLE  173 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  AS  MEASURED  BY  YERKES-BRIDGES 

POINT  SCALE 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Bedford  Women 

with  those  of  (i)  Cincinnati  Working  Girls  and  (2)  Working 

and  School  Girls  (Cincinnati) 


English-speaking  Cases  Only 

Bedford 

Working 

Girls 

(Cincinnati) 

Difference 

d 
0-d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

(Tm 

68.53 
±.811 

78.83 
±1.071 

-10.30 

7.67 

00 

(T 

13.69 
±535 

11.18 

±.832 

2.51 

2.54 

182 

(Ta 

Cases 

285 

109 

Bedford 

Working  and 
School  Girls 

Mean 

O-m 

68.53 
±.811 

84.62 
±.830 

-16.090 

13.86 

00 

0".    .. 

13.69 
±535 

11.36 

±.707 

2.34 

2.64 

244 

To- 

Cases 

285 

187 

however,  the  slight  difference  between  the  means  can  not  be  stressed 
as  significant,  since  as  great  a  difference  as  this  might  occur,  by 
chance,  as  often  as  1  in  8  times.  No  demonstrable  difference  in 
mentality  appears,  therefore,  between  the  best  of  the  delinquent 
groups  and  the  poorest  of  the  non-delinquent.  This  is  not  at  variance 
with  our  other  findings,  since  the  extensive  overlapping  of  range  of 
delinquent  and  non-delinquent  groups  has  been  apparent  in  all  our 
comparisons.  We  should  anticipate  that,  if  we  increased  the  num- 
ber and  variety  of  our  samples  of  non-delinquents,  we  should  find 
groups  appreciably  lower  than  certain  of  the  delinquent  groups. 

Table  174  shows  also  that  there  is  no  demonstrable  difference  in 
variability  between  the  Magdalen  and  either  of  the  Cincinnati  groups. 


432     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

COMPARISON  BY   MEANS  OF  WOOLLEY  SERIES 

As  we  stated  earlier  in  this  chapter,  we  shall  not  attempt  to  make 
any  comparison  of  the  results  obtained  by  us,  through  application 
of  the  Woolley  series  of  tests  to  delinquent  groups,  with  Dr.  Wool- 
ley's  results  from  working  girls,  since  an  extended  study  along  these 
lines  has  already  appeared  from  this  laboratory.  As  indicative  of 
the  general  results  of  this  comparison,  we  quote  the  following 
paragraph : 

"Thus  when  the  mentality  of  the  criminal  women  is  measured  by  the 
number  of  tests  in  which  their  ability  is  at  or  above  that  of  the  median 
working  girl  of  fifteen,  again  about  a  third  of  them  (35  per  cent)  fall 
within  the   range   of  the   better   fifty   per   cent  of   the   working  girls   of 


TABLE  174 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  AS  MEASURED  BY  YERKES-BRIDGES 

POINT  SCALE 

Comparison  of  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Magdalen  Home 

Women  with  Those  of  (i)  Cincinnati  Working  Girls  and  (2) 

Working  and  School  Girls  (Cincinnati) 

White,  English-speaking  Cases  Only 


Magdalen 

Working 
Girls 

Difference 

d 
(Td 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

76.58 
+  1.650 

78.83 

±1.071 

-2.25 

1.13 

8 

(T'jjj         

a  .         

12.03 
±1.166 

11.18 

±.832 

.85 

.59 

(J<j 

4 

Cases 

53 

109 

Magdalen 

Working  and 
School  Girls 

Mean 

76.58 
±1.650 

84.62 

±.830 

-8^04 

4.4 

147,000 

(Tm 

a 

(T„ 

12.03 
± 1 . 166 

11.36 

±.707 

.67 

.49 

3 

Cases   

53 

187 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  433 

fifteen,  about  two-thirds  below  the  median,  54  per  cent  poorer  than  all 
but  the  poorest  25  per  cent  of  the  standard.  30.7  per  cent  as  poor  as 
the  poorest  5.7  per  cent  and  17  per  cent  poorer  than  any  of  the  working 
girls."io 

It  is  evident  that  the  data  from  this  source  are  likewise  con- 
firmatory of  the  trend  toward  a  relatively  low  average  mentality  in 
the  delinquent  group. 

SUMMARY 

Summarizing,  then,  the  results  of  such  comparisons  as  we  have 
been  able  to  make  of  the  mental  capacity  of  delinquent  women  with 
that  of  non-delinquents,  it  appears :  ^ 

(1)  That  the  average  mental  capacity  of  the  delinquent  women 
whom  we  have  examined  is  lower  than  that  of  any  groups  of  non- 
delinquent  adults  with  regard  to  whom  we  have  data." 

(2)  That,  however,  the  above  statement  does  not  imply  a  selec- 
tion of  individuals  entirely  from  the  lower  end  of  the  scale  of  in- 
telligence for  the  delinquent  group.  There  is,  in  fact,  an  extensive 
amount  of  overlapping  of  the  delinquent  with  the  non-delincjuent 
groups.  TlTe  range  of  the  delinquent  group  was  found  to  be  prac- 
tically coextensive  with  that  of  the  army  group,  our  most  representa- 
tive sampling  of  the  general  population.  Further,  the  difference  be- 
tween the  means  of  the  delinquent  and  the  non-delinquent  groups, 
while  affording  adequate  indication  of  a  distinction  between  the  two 
groups,  is  not  extreme  in  amount.  In  other  words,  this  is  definitely 
not  a  case  of  an  "all  or  none"  relationship. 

(3)  The  data  are  somev/hat  ambiguous  regarding  the  relative 
variability  of  the  two  groups.  From  consideration  of  our  most  repre- 
sentative material,  the  army  data,  we  conclude  that  the  variability 
of  the  delinquent  group  is  less  than  that  of  the  adult  population  in 
general.  Reference  to  the  other  non-delinquent  groups,  however, 
shows  that  the  variability  is  in  all  these  cases  lower  than  that  of  the 
delinquent  group.  The  evidence  at  hand,  therefore,  indicates  that  a 
group  of  non-delinquent  adults,  picked  at  random  from  any  spe- 
cialized segment  of  the  population,  is  likely  to  show  a  narrower 
dispersion  than  a  group  of  adult  delinquents.    Our  data  are,  however, 

"  Op.  cit.,  p.  274. 

"  It  should  be  remembered  that  the  statements  of  this  summary  refer  to  the 
white,  English-speaking  portions  of  the  delinquent  and  the  non-delinquent 
groups. 


434     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

far  too  slight  to  justify  us  in  maintaining  that  this  rule  will  always 
hold.  Inindamentally,  of  course,  it  would  depend  upon  the  hreadth 
of  the  category  which  determined  the  hasis  of  selection  of  the  non- 
delinquent  group. 

It  is  evident  from  the  foregoing  statement  that  our  findings  are 
in  accord  with  Goring's  as  regards  the  fact  of  a  difference  and  its 
direction.  They  indicate,  however,  a  slighter  degree  of  difference  than 
he  implies.  They  fail  absolutely  to  justify  the  view  expressed  recently 
by  certain  propagandists  that  delinquency  and  defective  intelligence 
are  practically  synonymous,  and  that,  accordingly,  solving  the  prob- 
lem of  mental  deficiency  will  solve  the  problem  of  delinquency. 


CHAPTER    XIV 

MENTAL  CAPACITY:   INTER-COMPARISON  OF  DELIN- 
QUENT GROUPS 

IN  the  preceding  chapter  we  have  endeavored  to  discover  the  re- 
lationship between  our  group  of  dehnquent  women  and  the  general 
population,  with  respect  to  intelligence.  In  the  present  chapter  we 
shall  be  concerned  with  a~  comparison  of  different  delinquent  groups 
with  one  another,  a  problem  of  importance  from  several  points  of 
view.  If  differences,  significant  in  amount,  are  found  to  exist  in  the 
case  of  delinquent  groups  now  available  for  consideration,  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  amounts  of  such  differences  may  suggest  the  nature 
of  the  limitations  to  be  imposed  upon  the  universality  of  conclusions 
based  on  a  study  of  any  particular  group  or  combination  of  groups. 
Further,  it  is  important  to  know  whether  differences  of  any  consid- 
erable size  are  found  between  the  different  types  of  groups  under 
consideration,  and  also  to  know  whether  the  institutions  which  we 
have  chosen  to  represent  particular  types  of  institutions  bear  a  close 
resemblance  to  others  of  these  types.  It  is  also  desirable,  wherever 
possible,  to  compare  groups  of  women  delinquents  with  corresponding 
groups  of  men  delinquents,  with  a  view  to  discovering  to  what  extent 
any  particular  findings  must  be  c[ualified  as  valid  for  offenders  of 
one  sex  but  not  for  those  of  the  other  sex. 

The  various  comparisons  suggested  above  will  be  carried  out,  so 
far  as  the  available  data  permit,  in  the  present  chapter.  Scantiness 
of  data  for  comparison,  however,  is  such  as  greatly  to  limit  the 
thoroughness  of  our  treatment. 

COMPARISON    OF    GROUPS    CONSIDERED    IN    PRESENT    INVESTIGATION 

The  first  step  in  the  comparison  of  different  delinquent  groups 
with  respect  to  general  intelligence  is  the  inter-comparison  of  the 
six  groups  which  constitute  the  units  from  which  our  total  is  made 
up.  As  the  simplest  method  of  indicating  whether  intelligence  had 
been  a  dominating  factor  in  determining  the  disposition  of  cases,  we 

435 


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436 


MENTAL  CAPACITY 


437 


computed  a  correlation  ratio  with  Test  Aggregate  as  the  quantitative 
variable  and  the  six  groups  of  delinquent  women  as  a  series  of 
qualitative  arrays.  The  relationship  between  intelligence  and  type  of 
sentence  is  shown  in  Table  175,  from  which  a  correlation  ratio  of  .17 
ii=.043  was  obtained.  This  would  indicate  that  the  degree  of  relation-\ 
ship  is  extremely  slight,  but  significant.  With  a  view  to  further  I 
analysis  of  these  differences  we  have  made  more  detailed  inter-com- 
parisons among  the  groups. 


(a)    Comparison  of  Total  English-Speaking  Portions  of  Groups 

The  seven  figures  of  Chart  XXVI  show  the  percentage  distribution 
of  scores  on  Test  Aggregate  for  each  of  the  six  groups  and  for 
the  combined  total.  (These  distributions  appear  in  numerical  form 
in  Table  175.)  An  inspection  of  these  shows  the  most  notice- 
able items  to  be  the  wide  distribution  of  the  Penitentiary  and,  to 
a  lesser  extent,  of  the  Bedford  group ;  the  relatively  low,  flat  curves 
of  these  two  groups  and  of  the  Workhouse  as  compared  with  the 
marked  concentration  about  the  mode  shown  by  the  Magdalen ;  the 
lack  of  representation  at  the  poor  end  for  the  Magdalen  group ;  the 
small  percentage  found  in  the  high  end  of  the  Workhouse  group ;  and 
differences  in  the  location  of  the  mean,  indicated  by  the  position  of 
the  dot  on  each  curve.  (Table  176  gives  the  numerical  values 
of  the  means  and   standard   deviations   for  these   groups.)      We   see 

Per 
Cent 


TOTAL 


Chart  XXVI 

Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate 

Per  cent  distribution  by  institutional  groups. 


Per 

Cent 


BEDFORD 


AUBURN 


45     49     53     57     61     65     69     73     77     81     85 

SCORE 


MAGDALEN 


I  I 

85  89  93  97 


45  49  S3  57  61  65  69  73  77 


Chart    XXVI    (Continued) 

Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate 

Per  cent  distribution  by  institutional  groups. 

438 


Per 
Cent 


PENITENTIARY 


85  89  93  97 


Per 
Cent 


WORKHOUSE 


45  49  5?  57 


PROBATION 


J=L 


I        I 


^ 


«  49  53  57 


61  65  69  73 

SCORE 


;Chart  XXVI  (Continued) 
Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate 
Per  cent  distribution  by  institutional  groups. 
439 


93  97 


440     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

TABLE  176 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  MEASURED  BY  TEST  AGGREGATE 

Comparison  of  Constants  by  Institutional  Groups 

English-speaking  Cases  Only 


Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

Mean 

75.05 
±  .  594 

75.38 
±1.39 

79.10 
±1.06 

76.72 
±1.24 

73.31 

±1.09 

77.49 
±1.19 

75  65 

Cm 

±.406 

(T 

<T(7 

9.12 
±.376 

9.01 
±1.30 

7.52 
±.720 

10.67 

±.738 

9.08 
±.650 

8.30 
±.763 

9.27 
±.266 

Cases 

236 

42 

50 

74 

69 

49 

520 

that  the  averages  for  mental  capacity  run  in  order  of  excellence. 
Magdalen,  Probation,  Penitentiary,  Auburn,  Bedford  and  the  Work- 
house, with  the  widest  steps  coming  between  the  Magdalen  and 
Probation  and  between  Bedford  and  the  Workhouse.  The  Magdalen 
and  the  Workhouse  seem  then  to  be  indicated  as  clearly  superior 
and  clearly  inferior  groups  respectively.  As  we  have  suggested,  the 
Magdalen  group  would  seem  to  owe  its  excellence  not  so  much  to 
a  piling  up  of  the  most  superior  cases,  i.e.,  those  in  the  highest  two 
intervals,  for  example,  but  rather  to  the  lopping  off  of  the  inferior 
end  and  a  high  concentration  of  cases  which  are  well  above  the 
average.  The  Workhouse  in  its  turn  would  seem  to  have  derived 
its  inferiority  from  its  small  percentage  of  superior  women  and  its 
uniform  distribution  above  and  below  the  average  rather  than  from 
any  unusual  representation  in  the  lowest  group.  The  Penitentiary 
and  Bedford  groups  include  a  wide  range  of  cases  from  those  very 
low  to  those  very  superior.  They  differ  from  each  other  in  that 
while  I'edford  is  sparsely  represented  in  the  most  superior  region, 
the  Penitentiary  has  a  greater  percentage  of  cases  here  than  is  found 
even  in  the  Magdalen  group.  Auburn  and  the  Probation  group  are 
alike  in  that  they  both  show  some  evidences  of  bimodality,  but  the 
numbers  are  too  few  to  attempt  to  draw  conclusions. 

In  order  to  find  out  whether  these  differences  are  valid  or  whether 
they  are  only  such  variations  as  might  occur  from  sampling,  we 
have  made  inter-comparisons  of  the  means  and  standard  deviations 


MENTAL  CAPACITY  441 

of  these  prison  groups.  We  print  below  a  table  (Table  177)  showing 
the  inter-relations  expressed  in  terms  of  the  ratio  of  the  difference  of 
the  means  to  the  standard  deviation  of  this  difference.  (As  earlier 
stated  [.see  p.  35]  we  are  considering  as  indicative  of  a  valid  difference 
a  ratio  of  two  or  more  times  the  standard  deviation.) 

From  this  table  we  see  that  a  difference  sufficient  to  be  re- 
garded as  almost  certainly  valid  occurs  in  only  five  of  the  com- 
parisons, namely:  between  the  Magdalen  and  Bedford,  the  Mag- 
dalen and  the  Workhouse,  the  Magdalen  and  Auburn,  the  Work- 
house and  Probation,  and  the  Workhouse  and  the  Penitentiary.  From 
this  we  would  infer  that  intellectual  capacity,  either  primarily  or 
secondarily,  may  have  been  a  factor  in  determining  the  disposition 
of  a  case  where  there  was  a  choice  between  these  institutions.  On 
the  whole  we  note  that  the  institutional  groups  are  mutuallv  over- 
lappmg  and  that  no  one  group  is  demonstrably  superior  or  'inferior 
to  all  the  others.  As  a  possible  reason  to  account  for  the  relative 
superiority  of  the  Magdalen  and  inferiority  of  the  Workhouse  groups 
we  may  say  that  the  Magdalen  is  the  only  one  of  the  institutions 
studied  which  may  itself  exercise  any  choice  in  the  matter  of  the 
inmates  it  receives.  The  Magdalen, '  being  a  private  institution,  has 
the  privilege  of  refusing  to  receive,  or  of  returning  as  undesirable 
cases  which  seem  unpromising.  It  seems  possible,  therefore  that 
this  might  function  as   a  selective   factor  in  that  it  would   tend  to 


TABLE  177 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  MEASURED  BY  TEST  AGGREGATE 

Inter-comparison  of  Means  of  Institutional  Groups  in  Terms  of  the 

Ratio  of  the  Difference  between  the  Means  to  the  Standard 

Deviation  of  the  Difference 


Auburn 

Magdalen 

Penitentiary 

Workhouse 

Probation 

Bedford .... 

-.22 

-3. 33 
-2.07 

-1.21 

-    .IS 

1.46 

1.40 

1.17 
3.r3 
2.07 

Auburn 

-1.84 

Magdalen 

-    .12 

Penitentiary 

.10 

Workhouse .... 

-    .45 

-2.60 

Explanation  of  table:  The  number  in  each  space  gives  the  vakie  for  A.  for  the 
two  institutional  groups  designated  at  the  head  of  the  column  and  to  the^left  of  the 
row  respectively  A  mmus  sign  indicates  that  the  mean  of  the  institutlnal  group 
at  the  left  is  smaller  than  the  mean  of  the  group  heading  the  column    '""°"^'  ^'^°''P 


442     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

raise  the  standard  mentally  as  well  as  otherwise  of  the  girls  com- 
mitted there. 

There  is  another  factor  also  which  may  conceivably  act  as  a  selec- 
tive agent  to  account  both  for  the  superiority  of  the  Magdalen  and 
I  the  inferiority  of  the  Workhouse.  This  is  the  matter  of  color.  There 
are  no  colored  women  committed  to  the  Magdalen,  while  the  Work- 
house contains  a  larger  percentage  than  any  of  the  other  groups,  36 
per  cent,  as  against  20  per  cent  at  the  Penitentiary,  20  per  cent  at 
Bedford,  17  per  cent  at  Auburn,  and  9  per  cent  on  Probation.  As 
we  shall  later  show  (Table  201),  there  is  a  large  and  unquestionably 
significant  difference  between  the  means  of  the  colored  and  the  white 
women. 

There  is  the  further  fact,  which  might  well  carry  weight  with 
judges  familiar  with  conditions  in  the  various  institutions,  that  the 
Workhouse  offers  least,  in  the  way  of  opportunities  for  training,  of 
any  of  the  institutions,  with  the  possilile  exception  of  the  Penitentiary. 

Considering  now  the  amount  of  variability  in  each  group  as 
shown  by  their  respective  standard  deviations,  we  find  that  while 
the  evident  order  runs  Penitentiary,  Bedford,  Workhouse,  Auburn, 
Probation,  Magdalen,  Table  178  shows  that  there  exists  a  demon- 
strably valid  difference  only  between  the  Penitentiary  and  Probation 
and  between  the  Penitentiary  and  the  Magdalen. 

TABLE  178 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  MEASURED  BY  TEST  AGGREGATE 

Inter-comparison  of  Standard  Deviations  of  Institutional  Groups  in 

Terms  of  the  Ratio  of  the  Difference  between  the  Means  to 

the  Standard  Deviation  of  the  Difference 


Auburn 

Magdalen 

Penitentiary 

Workhouse 

Probation 

Bedford 

.08 

1.97 
1.00 

-1.S5 
-1.11 
-3.05 

.02 

-    .05 

- 1 .  62 

1.62 

.97 

Auburn 

.75 

Magdalen 

-    .74 

Penitentiary 

2.23 

Workhouse 

.78 

Explanation  of  table:   The  number  in  each  space  gives  the  value  for  -^  for  the 

two  institutional  groups  designated  at  the  head  of  the  column  and  to  the  left  of  the 
row,  respectively.  A  minus  sign  indicates  that  the  standard  deviation  of  the  in- 
stitutional group  at  the  left  is  smaller  than  that  of  the  group  heading  the  column. 


MENTAL  CAPACITY 


443 


It  seems  possible  tliat  here  again  the  factor  of  the  elimination  of 
the  colored  from  the  Magdalen  and  their  practical  elimination  from 
the  Probation  group  may  explain  the  facts. 

(b)   Comparison  of  Institutional  Groups:  White  Women  Only 

In  order  to  be  certain  whether  or  not  the  question  of  color 
was  a  significant  factor  in  determining  the  degree  of  difference  in 
mental  capacity  of  these  groups,  we  have  calculated  new  frequency 
tables,  using  only  the  white  women  of  each  group.  This  has  un- 
fortunately made  our  numbers  very  small  in  some  groups. 

Table  179  shows  the  means  and  standard  deviations  of  each  group. 
The  most  noticeable  change  is,  as  we  should  expect,  the  raising  of 
the  means  of  the  Workhouse  and  Penitentiary. 

TABLE  179 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  MEASURED  BY  TEST  AGGREGATE 

Comparison  of  Constants  by  Institutional  Groups 

English-speaking  White  Women  Only 


Bedford 

Auburn 

Magdalen 

Peni- 
tentiary 

Work- 
house 

Probation 

Total 

Mean 

76.00 

+  .647 

75.64 

±1.682 

79.10 
±1.06 

79.07 

±1.323 

76.58 
±1.497 

77.98 
±1.214 

77.03 

0"m 

±.442 

8.96 

±.457 

8.90 
± 1 . 190 

7.52 
±.720 

9.72 
±.935 

8.98 
±1.058 

8.23 

±.859 

8.91 

ffa 

±.305 

Cases 

192 

28 

50 

54 

36 

46 

406 

Table  180  shows  the  significance  of  the  difference  between  the 
means  of  the  various  white  groups  in  the  same  way  that  Table  177 
showed  the  validity  of  the  difference  between  the  totals,  i.e.,  com- 
bined colored  and  white,  of  each  group. 

From  this  it  appears  that,  when  we  eliminate  the  colored  women 
from  the  comparison,  we  are  no  longer  able  to  demonstrate  the  ex- 
istence of  a  difference  between  the  Magdalen  and  Auburn,  the  Mag- 
dalen and  the  Workhouse,  or  the  Workhouse  and  the  Probation 
group.  Reference  to  Table  179,  in  relation  to  Table  176,  makes'  it 
clear,  however,  that  the  differences  re'ferred  to  have  not  been  eradi- 
cated by  elimination  of  the  colored  but  merely  reduced   in  amount. 


444     STUDY  OF  WO^TEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

TABLE  180 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  MEASURED  BY  TEST  AGGREGATE 

Inter-comparison  of  Means  of  White  Women  of  Institutional  Groups  in 

Terms  of  the  Ratio  of  the  Difference  between  the  Means  to 

the  Standard  Deviation  of  the  Difference 


Auburn 

Magdalen 

Penitentiary 

Workhouse 

Probation 

Bedford 

.20 

-2.50 
-1.74 

-2.09 

-1.60 

.02 

-.36 

-.42 
1.37 
1.25 

-1.44 

Auburn 

-1.13 

Magdalen 

.70 

Penitentiarv 

.61 

Workhouse 

-    .72 

Explanation  of  table :   The  number  m  each  space  gives  the  value  for  -—  for  the 

two  institutional  groups  designated  at  the  head  of  the  column  and  to  the  left  of  the 
row,  respectively.  A  minus  sign  indicates  that  the  value  of  the  constant  for  the  in- 
stitutional group  at  the  left  is  smaller  than  that  of  the  group  heading  the  column. 

The  validity  of  the  distinction  has  been  affected  by  the  reduction  in 
numbers  involved  in  dropping  the  colored  as  well  as  by  the  reduction 
in  amount  of  difference. 

There  still  remains,  however,  a  difference  which  is  almost  cer- 
tainly valid  between  the  mental  capacity  of  the  Magdalen  women 
and  that  of  the  white  women  sent  to  Bedford.  Apparently  it  is 
not  the  presence  of  the  16  per  cent  of  colored  women  in  the  Bedford 
group  which  makes  it  inferior  to  the  Magdalen  group. 

There  appears  also  a  valid  difference,  which  the  presence  of 
the  colored  women  obscured  in  the  previous  comparison,  between  the 
Penitentiary  and  the  Bedford  groups.  Elimination  of  the  figures  for 
the  colored  women  from  the  total  for  the  Penitentiary  group  raises 
the  mean  from  76.72  to  79.07,  while  the  mean  for  the  Bedford 
group  is  raised  from  75.05  only  to  76.00  by  the  corresponding  change. 
In  possible  explanation  of  the  superiority,  with  regard  to  intelligence, 
;  of  the  white  women  of  the  Penitentiary  over  the  white  women  at 
Bedford  the  following  points  may  be  noted. 

Table  4  in  Chapter  VI  shows  that  of  the  women  at  Bedford  there 
are  62.7  per- cent  convicted  for  offenses  against  chastity  and  16.7 
per  cent  for  offenses  against  property,  while  at  the  Penitentiary  there 
are  only  6.4  per  cent  convicted  for  offenses  against  chastity  and 
56.4  per  cent  for  offenses  against  property.  In  the  following  chapter 
it  is  shown  that  there  is  a  difference  in  the  mental  capacity  of  the 


MENTAL  CAPACITY 


445 


chastity  and  property  offenders  which  is  in  favor  of  the  latter.  It 
would  seem,  then,  that  the  difference  in  mentality  between  Bedford 
and  the  Penitentiary  may  simply  reflect  this  difference  in  proportions 
of  the  two  types  of  offenders  mentioned  above. 

On  the  matter  of  the  variability  of  the  group,  when  we  are  con- 
sidering only  the  white  women  of  each  group,  we  see  from  Table 
181  that  we  lose  the  distinctions  which  were  seen  to  be  present  in  the 
other  table  (Table  178),  between  the  Penitentiary  and  the  Magdalen, 
and  the  Penitentiary  and  the  Probation  group.  When  we  consider, 
then,  just  the  white  women  oT  these  groups,  we  can  see  no  difference 
in  the  degree  of  variability  displayed  by  each.  Reduction  in  number 
of  cases  affects  this  comparison  as  well  as  that  of  the  means. 

TABLE  181 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  MEASURED  BY  TEST  AGGREGATE 

Inter-comparison  of  Standard  Deviations  of  White  Women  in  Institu- 
tional Groups  in  Terms  of  the  Ratio  of  the  Difference 
between  the  Means  to  the  Standard  Deviation 
of  the  Difference 


Auburn 

Magdalen 

Penitentiary 

Workhouse 

Probation 

Bedford 

.05 

1.69 
.99 

-  .73 

-  .54 
-1.87 

-  .02 

-  .05 
-1.14 

.52 

.75 

Auburn 

.45 

Magdalen 

-.64 

Penitentiary 

Workhouse 

1.17 
.55 

Explanation  of  table:   The  number  in  each  space  gives  the  value  for  — -   for  the 

two  institutional  groups  designated  at  the  head  of  the  column  and  to  the  left  of  the 
row,  respectively.  A  minus  sign  indicates  that  the  value  of  the  constant  for  the  in- 
stitutional group  at  the  left  is  smaller  than  that  of  the  group  heading  the  column. 


SUMMARY 

We  have  found  only  a  small  relationship  between  mental  capacity 
and  the  institution  to  which  the  women  were  committed.  Inter- 
comparison  of  the  groups  shows  that  the  means  run  in  order  of  ex- 
cellence :  Magdalen,  Probation,  Penitentiary,  Auburn,  Bedford  and 
Workhouse.  An  effort  to  prove  the  validity  of  these  differences 
shows  that  they  are  significant  in  only  four  instances,  i.e.,  between 
Magdalen  and  Auburn,  Magdalen  and  Bedford,  Magdalen  and  Work- 
house,   and    Workhouse    and    Probation.      Eliminating    the    colored 


446     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

women,  whose  mental  capacity  is  markedly  inferior  to  the  white,  we 
found  that  a  demonstrably  valid  distinction  no  longer  appeared  be- 
tween the  mental  capacity  of  the  Magdalen  group  and  that  of  the  white 
women  at  Auburn  and  at  the  Workhouse ;  and  between  the  white 
women  at  the  Workhouse  and  those  on  Probation.  The  difference  re- 
mains as  almost  certainly  valid,  however,  between  the  Magdalen  group 
and  the  white  women  at  Bedford,  and  a  difference  previously  obscured 
appeared  between  the  white  women  at  Bedford  and  those  at  the 
Penitentiary  in  favor  of  the  latter.  We  suggest  for  this  latter  dis- 
tinction the  fact  that  the  Bedford  group  is  made  up  largely  of  chastity 
offenders,  and  the  Penitentiary  of  property  offenders,  between  whom 
a  difference  in  mental  capacity  is  found  to  exist.  The  difference 
between  the  mental  capacity  of  the  Magdalen  and  the  white  women 
at  Bedford,  both  of  which  institutions  contain  a  large  percentage  of 
chastity  offenders  (Bedford  62.7  per  cent  and  Magdalen  77.6  per 
cent),  we  attribute  possibly  to  the  selection  privileges  possessed  by 
the  Magdalen  Home.  The  difference  in  the  amount  of  variability 
displayed  in  the  different  groups  was  seen  to  be  significant  only  be- 
tween the  Penitentiary  and  the  Magdalen,  and  the  Penitentiary  and 
Probation  groups.  When  the  colored  women  are  eliminated  from 
ithe  groups  there  are  no  distinctions  which  approach  the  limits  of  cer- 

/tain  validity. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that,  while  the  presence  of  the  colored 
women  explains  many  of  these  distinctions  between  groups,  they  are 
themselves  intrinsic  parts  of  the  groups  in  which  they  are  present 
and  must  not  be  thought  of  as  extraneous  when  the  comparison  is 
between  institutional  groups  per  se. 

The  main  outcome  of  our  comparison  of  institutional  groups  is 
the  indication  that  the  similarity  of  the  various  groups,  as  regards 
both  mental  level  and  variability,  is  more  striking  than  their  differ- 

\  ences.  This  similarity  of  the  groups  has  an  important  bearing  on  the 
general  significance  of  the  figures  on  the  mentality  of  the  total  group. 
We  have  noted,  in  Chapter  II,  that  our  total  group  does  not  contain 
representatives  of  the  women  of  the  different  types  of  institutions 
in  the  proportions  in  which  they  actually  occur  in  the  total  delinquent 
population.  Certain  groups  within  our  total  accordingly  exercise  an 
undue  weight  on  the  general  result.  This  can  not,  however,  appre- 
ciably distort  the  results  as  to  mentality,  when  the  inter-institutional 
differences  are  no  greater  than  we  find  them. 


MENTAL  CAPACITY 


447 


COMPARISON    OF    OUR    DELINQUENT    GROUPS    WITH    OTHERS 

Turning  now  to  a  comparison  of  our  delinquent  women  with  other 
groups  of  dehnquent  adults,  we  shall  consider  such  groups  as  we 
have  been  able  to  discover  of  either  men  or  women,  which  are  com- 
parable in  type  with  the  delinquent  groups  which  we  have  studied 
and  which  have  been  examined  by  the  same  test  methods. 

(a)  Bedford  and  Albion  Reformatories 

In  one  of  the  publications  of  the  Bureau  of  Analysis  and  In- 
vestigations" there  is  contained  a  brief  report  by  J.  L.  Herrick 
on  the  testing  of  194  inmates  at  the  Western  House  of  Refuge  at 
Albion,  New  York.  These  women  range  in  age  from  sixteen  to  forty 
years  and  are  directly  comparable  with  our  Bedford  women,  as 
the  Western  House  of  Refuge  handles  the  same  types  of  cases  from 
the  western  part  of  New  York  State  that  Bedford  does  for  the  east- 
ern. The  Stanford-Binet  was  given  among  other  tests  and  Dr. 
Herrick  prints  a  table  of  frequencies  by  mental  ages  in  years.  (For 
corrsponding  data  on  Bedford  group,  see  Table  167.)  Chart  XXVII 
presents  graphically  the  distributions  of  343  Bedford  cases  and  194 
cases  from  the  Albion  Reformatory. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  groups  suggest  each  other  in  general  out- 
line, the  spread  of  the  distribution  being  very  similar,  with  a  standard 

"  Herrick,  J.  L.  "Mental  Examinations."  P.  7,  Eugenics  and  Social  Wel- 
fare Bulletin,  No.  XL  Publication  of  the  Bureau  of  Analysis  and  Investiga- 
tion.    1917. 

TABLE  182 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  the  Mental 

Capacity  Measured  by  Stanford-Binet  Mental  Age  between 

Bedford  Women  and  Women  from  the  Western 

House  of  Refuge  at  Albion 


Bedford 
Women 

Albion 
Women 

Difference 

d 

0"d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

11.11 

+  .136 

11.60 
+  .155 

-.49 

2.39 

119 

(Tin 

a     

2.2 
+  .10 

2.16 
+  .110 

.04 

.260 

3 

(To- 

Cases 

261 

194 

448     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

deviation  of  2.20±.096  for  one  as  against  2.16±:.110  for  the  other. 
There  is  a  difference  of  almost  half  a  year  in  the  central  tendency, 
11.60±.155  as  against  11.11  ±.136,  and  this  difference  is  in  favor  of 
the  Albion  women.     Table  182  shows  the  degree  of  validity  that  may 

Per 
Cent 


Per 

Cent 


BEDFORD 


.L-n 


^i^^^i"^ 


9  10  U  12  13         14  IS  16  17         18  19  20 

MENTAL  AGE  '"'^"  ^ 


ALBION 


MENTAL  AGE  XKVII  f» 

Chart  XXVII 

Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Stanford-Binet 

Percentage  comparison   between   Bedford    Reformatory   women    and    Albion 
Reformatory  women — English-speaking  cases  only. 


be  attached  to  these  differences.  It  is  evident  that  the  slight  amount 
of  difference  between  the  two  standard  deviations  can  be  accounted 
for  in  terms  of  chance,  but  that  the  half  year's  difference  between 
the  means  is  almost  certainly  of  valid  significance.    We  can  say,  there- 


MENTAL  CAPACITY 


449 


fore,  that  while  these  groups  of  women  at  Bedford  and  Albion  cover  ^ 
about  the  same  range  of  variability  in  their  mental  capacity  as  shown 
by  this  scale,  the  Albion  women  are  on  the  average  slightly  superior. 
It  is  of  interest  to  note,  however,  that  Bedford  has  a  slight  repre- 
sentation higher  on  the  scale  than  the  Albion  group  extends. 

(b)   Bedford  Reformatory  and  Chicago  House  of  Correction 

The  work  by  Dr.  Kohs^^  at  the  Chicago  House  of  Correction 
may  also  be  compared  with  the  Bedford  group.  The  study  was  made 
of  335  boys  from  17  to  21  years  of  age,  the  testing  being  done  with 
the  Goddard  modification  of  the  Binet-Simon  scale.     We  had  earlier 

TABLE  183 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  AS  MEASURED  BY  BINET-SIMON 
(GODDARD  REVISION) 

Per  Cent  Distribution  of  Bedford  Women  and  of  Men  at  the  Chicago 
House  of  Correction  (Chicago),  with  Constants 


Mental  Age 

Number 
of  cases 

Mean 

a 

6  — 

7  — 

8  — 

9  — 

10  — 

11  — 

12  — 

Bedford  Women 

1.0 

5.0 

28.0 

38.0 

28.0 

100 

10.32 
±.091 

.91 
±.065 

House  of  Correction 
Men  (Chicago) 

.6 

.6 

5.4 

20.0 

31.6 

35.2 

6.6 

335 

10.58 
±.059 

1.08 
±.042 

in  our  work  at  the  Laboratory  used  this  scale  on  a  group  of  100 
Bedford  cases  whose  results  we  can,  therefore,  compare  with  those 
of  Dr.  Kohs'  group.  Table  183  presents  the  data  on  these  two 
groups  for  comparison.  A  point  of  difference  in  method  enters  in, 
in  that  Dr.  Kohs  had  added  to  the  Goddard  scale  tests  XV-  and 
XV*  from  the  original  Binet  scale  to  compensate  for  any  accidental 
variations,  while  our  figures  represent  the  Goddard  scale  unmodified. 
This  gives  the  Chicago  group  a  slight  advantage  over  ours.  From 
a  comparison  of  the  constants  it  is  seen  that  there  is  a  small  but,, 
as   Table    184  shows,   an   almost  certainly   significant   difference   be- 

'^  Kohs,  Samuel  C.  "The  Practicability  of  the  Binet  Scale  and  the  Question 
of  the  Borderline  Case."  Bulletin  No.  3,  Psychopathic  Department  Series  No. 
2.  Publications  of  the  Research  Department,  Chicago  House  of  Correction, 
1915. 


450     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


TABLE  184 


Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Mental  Capacity 

Measured  by  Binet  Mental  Ages  (Goddard)  between  Bedford  Women 

and  Men  at  Chicago  House  of  Correction 


Bedford 
Women 

Chicago 
House  of  Cor- 
rection Men 

Difference 

d 
0-d 

Chiances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean     

10.32 
±.091 

10.58 
±.059 

-.26 

2.43 

133 

(Jm           

(J 

.91 
±.065 

1.08 
±.042 

-.17 

2.15 

63 

(J  a 

Cases 

100 

335 

tween  the  means  and  standards  deviations  of  these  two  groups.  Con- 
sidering the  slight  advantage  which  accrues  to  the  Chicago  group 
as  a  result  of  the  difference  in  procedure  of  testing,  we  should  not  feel 
justified,  however,  in  stressing  so  slight  a  difference.  We  should, 
therefore,  feel  safe  in  saying  that,  measured  by  the  Goddard  modifi- 
cation of  the  Binet-Simon  scale,  our  Bedford  group  appears  no  better 
and  probably  not  appreciably  worse  than  the  men  tested  by  Dr. 
Kohs  at  the  Chicago  House  of  Correction. 

(c)  Auburn  Women  and  Auhurn  Men 

For  purposes  of  comparison  with  the  group  of  Auburn  women, 
we  are  relying  mainly  on  data  obtained  by  Dr.  Frank  L.  Heacox  on 
a  group  of  men  at  Auburn  Prison.  We  are  indebted  to  him  for 
the  advance  use  of  data  on  473  men  tested  by  the  Yerkes-Bridges  Point 
Scale  and  100  men  tested  by  the  Stanford-Binet.  Chart  XXVIII  shows 
the  distribution,  in  terms  of  points  on  the  Yerkes-Bridges  Point 
Scale,  of  our  44  English-speaking  Auburn  women  in  comparison 
with  that  of  473  consecutive  admissions  (with  minor  exceptions), 
of  English-speaking  men  in  the  men's  prison  at  Auburn.  The  marked 
irregularity  of  the  curve  for  the  Auburn  women  is  explicable  on 
the  ground  of  the  small  number  of  cases.  Aside  from  this  difference 
between  the  curves  there  is  no  important  difference  in  general  out- 
line. The  crude  mode  falls  in  the  same  interval,  and  the  direction  of 
skewness  is  the  same,  although  the  range  of  the  men's  scores  is  slightly 
greater    in    both    directions.      The    means    are    practically    identical, 


Per 
Cent 


Per 
Ctot 


AUBURN  WOMEN 


24     30     36     42     48     54     60     66     72     78     84     90     96     102 

XXVIII  A 

POINTS 


AUBURN  MEN 


24  30  36  42  48  54  60  65  72  78 

AxviK  n 

POINTS 

Chart  XXVIII 
Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Yerkes-Bridges   Point   Scale 
Percentage  comparison  between  Auburn  women  and  Auburn  men — English- 
speaking  cases  only. 

TABLE  185 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Mental  Capacity 

Measured  by  Yerkes-Bridges  Point  Scale  between  Women 

at  Auburn  Prison  and  Men  at  Auburn  Prison 


Auburn 
Women 

Auburn 
Men 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in  : 

Mean  (Points) 

72.73 

±1.88 

72.66 

±.622 

.07 

.03 

2 

(T 

12.45 

±1.28 

13  53 

±.440 

-1.08 

.80 

4 

(7(T 

Cases 

44 

473 

451 


452     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


72.73±1.87  as  against  72.66±.622.  Table  185  shows  that  this  in- 
finitesimal difference  is  insignificant,  the  chances  being  1  in  2  that 
as   much   difference   could   occure  by  pure   chance.     The   divergence 


Per 
Cent 


Per 

Cent 


AUBURN  WOMEN 

^ 

..p. 

58  64  70  76  87  88 

POINTS 


94  100  106        112        118  124 


AUBURN  MEN 


Chart  XXIX 

Mental  Capacity  as   Measured  by   Stanford-Binet 

Percentage  comparison  between  Auburn  women  and  Auburn  men — English- 
speaking  cases  only. 

between  the  standard  deviations,  i.e.,  between  13. 53  ±.440  and 
12.45  ±1.280,  might  be  expected  to  occur  through  sampling  1  time  in  4. 
(  Comparison  of  the  same  group  of  Auburn  women  with  a  group 
of  100  Aulmrn  men.  both  measured  by  the  Stanford-Binet  intelligence 
quotient,  is  presented  graphically  in  Chart  XXIX.  Intelligence  quotient 


MENTAL  CAPACITY 


453 


rather  than  mental  age  has  been  used,  since  we  have  given  the  former 
measure  the  preference,  except  where  it  has  been  necessary  to  use 
mental  age  for  comparison  with  other  data.  Referring  to  Chart  XXIX 
we  note  that  the  greater  range  of  variability  in  the  group  of  Auburn 
men  is  more  evident  here  than  in  the  comparison  on  the  Yerkes- 
Bridges  Scale. 

Especially  is  this  noticeable  at  the  superior  end,  which  extends 
for  three  intervals  beyond  anything  which  we  obtained  in  our  group. 
It  is  only  fair  to  recall  here  that  three  of  the  apparently  brightest  and 
best  educated  women  in  our  Auburn  group  refused  to  be  examined 
and  that  this  perhaps  helps  to  explain  our  lack  of  representation  at 
this  end.  Whatever  the  explanation,  it  is  evident  that  our  group, 
as  it  stands,  forms  a  more  compact  unit  than  that  of  the  men.  Table 
186  shows  that  while  there  is  no  difference  demonstrable  between  the 
means,  there  is  an  almost  certain  difference  between  the  respective 
degrees  of  variability  shown  in  the  two  groups 


TABLE  186 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Mental  Capacity 
Measured  by  Stanford  Binet  I,  Q.  between  Women  at  Auburn 
Prison  and  Men  at  Auburn  Prison 


Auburn 
Women 

Auburn 
Men 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

72.73 
± 1 . 709 

72.70 
±1.506 

.03 

.02 

2 

ffrn 

or 

(Ta 

11.21 

+  .736 

15.06 
+  1.076 

-3.85 

2.95 

625 

Cases 

43 

100 

We  had  hoped  to  make  some  comparison  of  our  data  on  this 
group  with  the  results  obtained  by  Dr.  Glueck  in  his  work  at  Sing 
Sing,^^  but,  although  he  states  that  he  has  employed  both  the  Yerkes- 
Bridges  and  the  Stanford-Binet  scales,  he  gives  no  figures  showing 
distributions.  He  diagnoses  as  defective  98  of  his  native-born  cases 
and  says  that  while  he  bases  this  diagnosis  on  their  previous  history 
and  present  reactions  as  well  as  on  the  laboratory  findings,  none  of 
them  possessed  a  degree  of  intelligence  beyond  that  of  the  average 

''Op.  cit. 


454    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

twelve-year-old  American  child.  We  regret  also  that  we  can  not  make 
a  comparison  between  our  results  on  this  group  and  the  testing  of 
330  inmates  of  the  Massachusetts  State  Prison  which  was  made  by 
Rossy  ^*  in  1917.     He  has  used  the  Yerkes-Bridges  Point  Scale  as  a 


Cent 
25  t- 


Per 
Cent 


PENITENTIARY  WOMEN  (New  York) 


PENITENTIARY 

MEN  (Ohio) 

i^Mf 

24     30     35     42     48     54     60     66     72     78     84     90     96     102 

POINTS  "'"'  " 

Chart  XXX 

Mental    Capacity   as    Measured   by   Yerkes-Bridges    Point    Scale 

Percentage  comparison  between  New  York  Penitentiary  women  and  Ohio 
State   Penitentiary  men — English-speaking  cases  only. 

measure  and  prints  his  frequencies  so  that  comparison  would  have 

been  simple  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  he  has  used  the  mental  age 

"  Rossy,  C.  S.  "Report  of  the  First  Three  Hundred  Cases  Examined  at  the 
Massachusetts  State  Prison."  Bulletin  No.  17  of  the  Mass.  State  Board  of 
Insanity.     Jan.,  1916-    . 


MENTAL  CAPACITY 


455 


TABLE  187 


Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Mental  Capacity 

Measured  by  Yerkes-Bridges  Point  Scale  between  New  York 

Penitentiary  Women  and  Ohio  State  Penitentiary  Men 


New  York 

Penitentiary 

Women 

Ohio 

Penitentiary 

Men 

Difference 

d 
0^ 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean  (Points) 

Cm 

73.64 
±1.63 

77.10 
±1.29 

-3.46 

1.67 

21 

<T 

(T<j 

14.48 
±.908 

12.01 
±.761 

2.47 

2.08 

53 

Cases 

79 

87 

as  a  measure  without  stating  from  which  one  of  Yerkes'  curves  he  has 
derived  these  ages. 

(d)  'Nezv  York  Penitentiary  Wofnen  and  Ohio  Penitentiary  Men 

For  purposes  of  comparison  with  our  Penitentiary  group,  we 
have  relied  mainly  on  the  study  by  Dr.  Haines,  who  tested  100  con- 
secutive admissions  to  the  Ohio  State  Penitentiary  by  the  Yerkes- 
Bridges  Point  Scale. ^^  Of  these  only  87  are  included  in  the  data 
given,  as  13  were  too  foreign  to  make  such  examination  reliable. 
Chart  XXX  shows  the  curve  for  this  group  in  comparison  with  that  for 
our  group  of  Penitentiary  women.  The  most  striking  difference 
between  the  two  curves  is  in  respect  to  the  degree  of  concentration 
of  cases  about  any  given  point.  Our  Penitentiary  group  shows  an 
approximate  evenness  of  distribution  over  quite  a  wide  range,  whereas 
Haines'  group  shows  a  sharp  concentration  about  a  mode  in  die 
upper  portion  of  the  scale.  The  range  of  our  group  is  wider  than  I 
that  of  the  other,  by  virtue  of  the  fact  that  it  extends  lower  in  the ' 
intelligence  scale.  Although  there  appears  to  be  a  slight  difference 
between  the  means  in  favor  of  Haines'  group,  reference  to  Table 
187  shows  that  this  difference  is  probably  to  be  accounted  for  by 
sampling.  As  regards  the  amount  of  variability,  however,  there  is  an 
almost  certain  degree  of  difference  in  the  direction  of  the  greater 
variability  of  our  group. 

"Haines,    Thomas    H.      "Feeble-mindedness    Among    Adult    Delinquents." 
Jour,  of  Criminal  Law  and  Criminology.     1917.     Vol.  7,  No.  5. 


456     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


TABLE  188 


Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Mental  Capacity 
Measured  by  Yerkes -Bridges  Point  Scale  between  New  York  Work- 
house Women  and  Columbus  (Ohio)  Workhouse  Men 


New  York 

Workhouse 

Women 

Columbus 

Workhouse 

Men 

Difference 

d 
0^ 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean  (Points) 

Cjn 

66.61 
±1.71 

71.88 
±1.46 

-5.27 

2.35 

106 

(y  .  .  .  .          

14.78 

±.972 

14.57 
±.901 

.21 

.155 

2 

<Ja             

Cases 

75 

100 

The  work  done  at  the  Joliet  Penitentiary  by  Louise  E.  Ordahl  and 
George  OrdahP*^  would  seem  to  furnish  data  on  a  similar  group, 
but  their  method  of  combining  two  scales,  the  Stanford  and  Kuhl- 
man  revisions,  make  their  results  impossible  of  comparison, 

(e)   Workhouse  Women  {Neiv  York)  and  Workhouse  Men   (Ohio) 

The  figures  which  are  available  for  comparison  with  our  Work- 
house group  are  the  results  of  a  study  made  by  R.  A.  Gilliland  on 
100  men  at  the  Workhouse  at  Columbus,  Ohio.^'^  Their  ages  varied 
from  18  to  53 ;  28  were  colored  and  72  were  white.  The  cases 
were  chosen  by  the  crimes  committed  in  proportion  to  their  repre- 
sentation in  the  entire  group,  the  only  exception  being  that  more 
than  the  correct  percentage  of  vagrancy  cases  were  chosen.  Chart 
XXXI  shows  the  distribution  of  the  scores  on  the  Yerkes-Bridges  Point 
Scale,  by  which  they  were  tested,  and,  for  comparison,  the  distribu- 
tion of  scores  made  on  this  scale  by  our  group. of  Workhouse  women. 

Inspection   of   the   curves   shows   a   certain   similarity   as    regards 

the  spread  of  the  curves,  but  a  greater  concentration  of  cases  in  the 

upper  end  of  the  Ohio  group.     From  Table  188  we  see  that  there 

[exists  an  almost  certainly  valid  difference  between  the  central  tenden- 

"  Ordahl,  Louise  E.  and  Ordahl,  George.  "A  Study  of  49  Female  Con- 
victs."    Journal  of  Delinquency.     1917.     Vol.  II,  No.  6,  pp.  331-351. 

"Gilliland,  R.  A.  "The  Mental  Ability  of  100  Inmates  of  the  Columbus 
(O.)  Workhouse."  Journal  of  Criminal  Law  and  Criminology.  Vol.  7,  No.  6. 
March,  1917. 


MENTAL  CAPACITY 


457 


Per 
Cent 


WORKHOUSE  WOMEN  (New  York) 


n   H 

r-Lj~Lr-J"^ 

■* • > 

— 1 

24     30     36     42     48     54     60     66     72     78     84     90     95     102 


^ 


WORKHOUSE  MEN  AND  WOMEN  (Ohio) 


24  3U  36  42 


Chart  XXXI 
Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Yerkes-Bridges  Point  Scale 

Percentage    comparison   between    New    York   Workhouse   women   and    Ohio 
Workhouse  group  composed  of  men  and  women — English-speaking  cases  only. 


cies  of  the  two  curves,  with  the  New  York  group  inferior  to  the 
other,  but  that,  as  regards  the  degree  of  variabiHty  shown,  no  differ- 
ence can  be  demonstrated  which  is  not  explicable  by  sampling. 

Sumrnary 

wSummarizing  these  results,  we  can  see,  then,  that  if  we  assume  as 
adecjuate  measures  of  intellectual  capacity  the  various  scales  that 
have  been  used,  we  can  make  the  following  statements : 


458     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

The  Bedford  women,  as  compared  with  those  in  a  similar  institu- 
tion at  Albion,  differ  by  a  small  but  almost  certainly  valid  amount 
as  to  their  averages,  but  no  difference  between  the  amount  of  varia- 
bility around  the  average  can  be  demonstrated  for  the  two  groups. 
Both  groups  approach  symmetry  in  their  distribution. 

In  comparison  of  the  Bedford  women  with  the  group  of  young 
men  studied  by  Kohs  at  the  Chicago  House  of  Correction,  both  the 
mean  and  the  degree  of  scatter  about  the  mean  are  found  to  be  slightly 
greater  for  the  latter  group.  This  difference  appears  to  be  significant 
though  perhaps  to  be  accounted  for  as  a  result  of  the  somewhat 
greater  leniency  in  examination  in  the  case  of  Kohs  group.  It  seems, 
therefore,  that  in  comparison  with  these  two  other  groups  of  offenders 
of  the  reformatory  type,  our  women  are  not  markedly  inferior. 

When  we  compare  the  group  of  women  committed  to  Auburn 
/  Prison  with  Heacox's  study  of  male  inmates  of  the  same  place,  we 
see  that  no  difference  can  be  demonstrated  in  the  average  of  their 
mental  capacity  by  either  of  the  two  measures  employed,  but  that  by  one 
of  these  scales  a  difference  in  variability  is  indicated.  It  would  seem, 
therefore,  that  the  average  mental  capacity  of  the  male  and  female 
convicts  in  this  institution  is  not  demonstrably  different  but  that  the 
men  convicts  would  appear  to  exhibit  a  slightly  greater  variability 
than  the  women,  at  least  as  measured  by  the  Stanford  Revision. 

Regarding  the  two  Penitentiary  groups,  it  appears  that  Haines' 
group  is  less  spread  out  than  the  New  York  Penitentiary  women  and 
somewhat  better  on  the  average,  though  the  validity  of  the  lattpr  dis- 
tinction is  open  to  question. 

/  The  New  York  Workhouse  women  seem  to  be  clearly  inferior  to 
the  men  studied  by  Gilliland  in  a  similar  institution.  Their  average 
on  the  Yerkes-Bridges  Point  Scale  is  more  than  five  points  lower  and 
this  difference  has  been  shown  to  be  almost  certainly  valid.  (We  may 
say,  moreover,  that  our  mean  would  undoubtedly  have  been  lower  if 
the  women  committed  to  the  Workhouse  for  intoxication  had  been 
included  in  our  group.  Our  sample  of  19  such  cases  shows  a  mean  of 
64.52.)  The  variation  in  the  amount  of  scatter  between  these  groups 
is  insignificant  and  easily  accounted  for  by  sampling. 

Owing  to  the  small  amount  of  material  available  on  delinquent 

groups  other  than  ours,  the  scanty  information  regarding  the  selective 

processes  operative  in  determining  the  make-up  of  these  groups,  and 

the  uncertainty  as  to  whether  the  technique  of  administration  of  the 

i  tests  was  in  every  case  comparable  with  ours,  we  offer  no  general 


MENTAL  CAPACITY  459 

interpretation  of  the  above  comparisons.  One  negative  inference  sug-  ' 
gested  by  the  material  at  hand  might,  however,  be  noted.  In  view 
of  the  sHghtness  and  statistical  uncertainty  of  the  majority  of  the  dif- 
ferences observed  between  our  groups  and  others  from  similar  types 
of  institutions,  it  would  appear  that  ours  are  not  eccentric  to  any 
marked  degree. 


CHAPTER  XV 

MENTAL  CAPACITY:   RELATED  TO   VARIOUS   FACTORS 
WHICH  AFFECT   THE  DELINQUENT   GROUP 

IN  the  following  discussion  we  shall  limit  ourselves  to  comparisons 
made  possible  by  our  own  data  on  the  women  of  the  six  delinquent 
groups  studied.  We  shall  consider  especially  the  relationship  of  men- 
tal capacity,  as  measured  by  the  showing  in  certain  tests,  to  the  main 
social  factors  in  the  records  of  these  women. 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  IN  RELATION  TO  CRIMINAL  CAREER 

(a)  Mental  Capacity  and  Nature  of  Offense 

The  contention  is  frequently  heard  that  certain  types  of  offenders 
^e  mentally  superior  to  those  guilty  of  other  kinds  of  delinquencies. 
It  is  possible  to  obtain  some  information  with  regard  to  the  accuracy 
of  this  contention,  at  least  as  it  applies  to  women  delinquents,  through 
the  mechanism  of  correlation.  In  Table  189  we  have  used  as  a  quan- 
titative variable  the  mental  capacity  measured  by  Test  Aggregate  and 
as  a  qualitative  classification  that  employed  by  the  New  York  City 
Police  Department  (see  Chapter  VI.  p.  85).  The  correlation  ratio 
which  this  table  yields  is  .23 ±.049.  which  would  seem  to  indicate 
that  there  probably  exists  a  small  but  significant  degree  of  association 
between  the  intellectual  capacity  of  a  woman  and  the  kind  of  crime, 
classified  in  this  way,  that  she  commits.  The  means  run,  in  order  of 
excellence, — Offenses  against  Property  Rights,  against  Regulations  for 
Public  Health,  against  Chastity,  against  the  Family,  General  Criminal- 
ity, Offenses  against  the  Person,  and  Offenses  against  Administration 
of  Government.  The  numbers  in  some  of  the  groups  are,  of  course, 
too  few  to  make  the  means  significant. 

If  we  consider,  however,  the  two  classes  of  offenses  for  which  we 
have  a  reasonable  number  of  cases,  those  against  property  and  those 
against  chastity,  we  obtain  the  curves  figured  in  Chart  XXXII.  The 
central  tendency  of  the  property  offenders  is  noticeably  higher  than  that 
of  the  chastity  offenders,  78.48±.993  as  over  against  75.52±.619,  but 

460 


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462     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


Chart  XXXII 

Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate 

Percentage    comparison    between    offenders    against    property    and    offenders 
against  chastity.     English-speaking  cases  only. 

the  amount  of  variability  displayed  is  not  greatly  different  for  the  two 
groups,  9. 15 ±.584  for  the  property  offenders  and  8.95 ±.442  for  the 
chastity  offenders.  It  might  seem  to  be  of  interest  to  note  that  the 
scores  of  the  offenders  against  chastity  follow  more  closely  the  lines  of 
the  normal  curve  while  the  curve  of  property  offenders  tends  to  be 

TABLE  190 

OFFENDERS  AGAINST  PROPERTY  AND  OFFENDERS 
AGAINST  CHASTITY 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Mental  Capacity, 

as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate,  of  Offenders  against  Property 

and  Offenders  against  Chastity 

Total  Group.     English-speaking  Cases  Only 


Offenders 
against 
Property 

Offenders 
against 
Chastity 

Difference 

d 
CTd 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

78.48 
±.993 

75.52 
±.619 

2.96 

2.53 

175 

(Tin 

(J  

9.15 

+  .584 

8.95 

-  ±.422 

.20 

28 

3 

(Ja 

Cases 

85 

209 

MENTAL  CAPACITY 


463 


bimodal,  but  the  cases  of  the  latter  are  probably  too  few  to  make  this 
significant.  From  Table  190,  it  appears  that  this  observed  superiority 
of  the  offenders  against  property  may  be  regarded  as  almost  certainly 
significant.  For  the  slight  difference  which  exists  in  the  standard  de- 
viations, however,  no  valid  significance  can  be  demonstrated. 

We  have  next  taken  the  entire  group  and  instead  of  using  this  six- 
fold division  have  classified  their  offenses  simply  as  misdemeanors  and 
felonies.  The  two  groups  thus  obtained  are  distributed,  as  to  mental 
capacity,  as  shown  in  Chart  XXXIII,  Although  there  is  a  noticeable 


Per 

Cent 


4=^=!: 


—^ -•—•"•    Misdemeanants 

r"*" 

•  — _ 

"•" 

rrJ 

■""1 

I-  — 

* 

!___, 

Chart  XXXIII 

Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate 

Percentage  comparison  between  felons  and  misdemeanants.     English-speak- 
ing cases  only. 


difference  between  the  crude  modes  of  these  two  groups,  in  favor  of  the 
felons,  the  actual  difference  in  the  means  is  slight.  We  see  by  Table 
191  that  this  difference  of  .46  in  favor  of  the  felons,  taken  in  con- 
nection with  its  standard  deviation  is  too  small  to  be  demonstrated  as 
valid  and  that  the  slight  difference  in  the  degree  of  variability  can  also 
be  accounted  for  by  sampling.  There  would  seem  to  be,  then,  no 
demonstrable  difference  between  the  means  and  the  standard  deviations 
of  those  women  guilty  of  felonies  and  those  convicted  of  misdemean- 
ors. 

An  effort  to  compare  our  results  with  Goring's  with  reference  to 
nature  of  offense  was  quite  abortive,  due  to  the  extreme  difference 
in  classification. 


464     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


(b)   Mental  Capacity  and  Extent  of  Criminal  Record 

As  described  in  Chapter  VI,  we  have  used  as  a  measure  of  an  in- 
dividual's criminal  record ;  first,  the  number  of  previous  convictions 
and,  second,  the  number  of  months  incarcerated.  The  relationship  be- 
tween mental  capacity  and  the  former  measure  is  shown  in  Table  192. 
The  correlation  coefficient  is  negligible  in  size  ( — .05±.052)  and  would 
indicate  absence  of  any  correlation  between  these  two  factors.  The 
correlation  ratios  (.18d=.0.5C  and  .14±:.050)  suggest  the  existence  of 
at  most  a  small  degree  of  relationship  between  the  mental  capacity  of 
a  woman  and  the  number  of  times  she  has  been  convicted.  Examining 
the  scatter  table  and  noticing  the  lack  of  a  regular  trend  in  the  line 
of  means,  however,  we  become  dubious  of  the  existence  of  even  the 
small  relationship  suggested,  although  there  is  a  faint  indication  of  a 
tendency  toward  lower  mentality  with  increase  in  number  of  convic- 
tions. 

It  is  evident  at  once  that  the  ages  of  the  women  in  question  would 
have  to  be  taken  account  of  here.  A  partial  correlation  with  age  con- 
stant, however,  gave  a  coefficient  practically  identical  with  the  former 
coefficient,  —  .053  as  against  —  .054.  We  might,  therefore,  assum.e  that 
Ithe  matter  of  age  is  not  a  contributing  factor  in  this  relationship. 

If  we  next  consider  the  relation  of  intellectual  capacity  as  shown 
by  Test  Aggregate  to  the  period  of  time  spent  in  penal  institutions, 


TABLE  191 

FELONS  AND  MISDEMEANANTS  ON  PRESENT  CONVICTION 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Mental  Capacity, 

as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate,  of  those  Classified  as  Felons 

and  Misdemeanants  on  Present  Conviction 


English-speaking 

Cases  Only 

Felons 

Misde- 
meanants 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

76.1 
±1.20 

75.57 
±.531 

.53 

.40 

3 

Cm 

a 

9.57 
+  .958 

9.36 
±  323 

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466     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

we  see  by  Table  193  tbat  here  again  the  coefficient  is  small  and,  in 
consideration  of  its  standard  deviation,  probably  unreliable,  .09±.051. 
Here,  as  before,  we  feared  that  the  factor  of  age  might  be  complicat- 
ing the  relationship,  but  a  partial  correlation  making  age  constant 
brought  about  no  change  in  the  coefficient.  The  correlation  ratios 
(.16±.050  for  Test  Aggregate  on  time  served,  and  .10±.051  for  time 
served  on  Test  Aggregate)  can  indicate  at  most  only  a  slight  associ- 
ation. Reference  to  the  means  (Table  193)  shows  that  whatever  cor- 
relation exists  is  positive,  that  is,  that  the  tendency  is  toward  an 
association  of  longer  periods  of  imprisonment  v.^ith  higher  levels  of 
mentality. 

Regarding  this  matter  of  the  relation  of  intelligence  to  the  criminal 
record,  as  shown  in  these  two  ways,  we  quote  from  Goring.  Jt  will  be 
remembered  that  his  intelligence  scale  is  a  five-fold  judgmental  one 
and  that  his  measure  of  criminal  record  differs  from  ours  in  that  he 
has  used  as  a  measure  the  number  of  convictions  per  year  of  freedom 
and  the  number  of  months  imprisoned  per  year  of  freedom.  (For 
further  explanation  see  page  104  of  this  work.) 

"With  increasing  frequency  of  conviction,  the  proportion  of  convicts 
who  are  mentally  defective  progressively  increases  from  19  per  cent  to 
.36  per  cent,  and  their  mean  intelligence  decreases  from  -[-.39  to  — .27;  on 
the  other  hand,  with  increasing  periods  of  imprisonment,  the  average  in- 
telligence of  convicts  increases  from  — .08  to  -}-.32 — the  proportion  of  the 
mentally  defective  correspondingly  diminishing  from  33.6  per  cent  to  23.6 
per  cent.  Evidently,  the  characteristic  of  the  penal  records  of  relatively 
weak-minded  offenders  is  frequency  of  conviction  to  short  periods  of  im- 
prisonment, for  trivial  offenses ;  and  the  distinguishing  features  of  the  penal 
records  of  the  more  intelligent  recidivists  are  fewer  convictions,  but 
longer  sentences,  for  serious  offences."   .    .    . 

"Correlation   of   intelligence   with   frequency  of   conviction : 
Coefficient  r  .  .  . 
Ratio        (intelligence  upon  convictions) 

"Correlation  of  intelligence  with  time  of  imprisonment : 
Coefficient  r  .  .  . 
Ratio  r]    (intelligence  upon  imprisonment) 

"It  will  be  seen  that  the  correlation  coefficient  of  intelligence  with  con- 
victions is  — .16,  which  measures  the  extent  to  which  defective  intelligence 
is  associated  with  frequency  of  conviction;  and  that  the  coefficient  of  im- 
prisonment with  intelligence  is  -j-.lO,  which  measures  the  strength  of  bond 
uniting  length  of  imprisonment,  or  sentence,  with  good  intelligence."^ 

^Op.  cit.,  p.  271. 


— .16±: 

.03 

.20 

.10± 

:03 

.12 

467 


468     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

It  will  be  seen  that  such  relationships  as  we  discovered  in  our 
groups  tended  in  the  same  directions  as  did  Goring's — that  is,  to  a 
negative  association  between  intelligence  and  frequency  of  conviction 
and  a  positive  correlation  between  intelligence  and  total  length  of 
imprisonment.  In  view  of  the  slightness  of  the  relationships  indicated 
by  our  figures,  however,  we  should  not  feel  justified  in  making  so 
definite  a  statement  on  this  point  as  does  Goring.  We  are  inclined 
to  feel,  in  fact,  that  his  verbal  formulation  leaves  the  reader  with  a 
sense  of  a  more  impressive  relationship  than  is  justified  by  the  size  of 
his  correlation  coefficients. 

In  this  connection  it  should  also  be  noted  that  our  situation  is  some- 
what different  from  his,  in  that  a  long  sentence  which  is  the  result  of 
a  serious  offense  in  the  cases  studied  by  Goring  may  either  have  the 
same  significance  for  our  group  or  may  result  from  relatively  trivial 
causes.  This  is  brought  about  by  the  fact,  first,  that  we  have  included, 
as  Goring  evidently  has  not,  the  time  spent  in  juvenile  institutions 
where  the  sentence  is  generally  for  the  period  of  the  subject's  minor- 
ity; second,  that  at  least  three  of  the  institutions  studied  receive  cases 
on  indeterminate  sentence,  which  means  that,  of  two  women  brought 
in  for  the  same  offense,  one  might  get  20  days  in  the  Workhouse,  and 
the  other  three  years  at  Bedford,  dependent  on  whether  or  not  she  was 
considered  a  "reformatory  type."  In  view  of  the  attendant  ambi- 
|guity  in  this  measurement,  we  have  not  regarded  the  number  of  months 
/served  as  a  very  satisfactory  measure  of  a  woman's  criminal  record. 
\,/  If  we  next  consider  the  mental  capacity  of  the  women  who  were 
first  offenders  and  those  who  may  be  classed  as  recidivists,  we  obtain 
the  curve  shown  in  Chart  XXXIV.  It  is  evident  that  in  general  form 
the  two  present  a  similar  distribution.  The  means  are  almost  identical, 
75.64±.765  as  against  75.68±.627.  Table  194  shows  that  from  these 
figures  we  can  not  demonstrate  the  existence  of  a  difference,  the 
chances  being  even  that  such  difference  could  occur  by  chance.  On 
the  matter  of  variability,  it  can  be  seen  that  the  standard  deviation  of 
the  recidivists  is  slightly  greater  than  that  of  the  first  offenders  but  this 
difference  is  not  large,  and  according  to  Table  194  its  validity  is  not 
established.  We  are,  then,  unable  to  demonstrate  that  there  exists 
any  difference,  other  than  might  be  accounted  for  by  sampling,  in 
either  average  mental  capacity  or  variability  between  those  women 
delinquents  who  are  now  convicted  for  the  first  time  and  those  who 
have  received  two  or  more  convictions.  It  would  seem,  therefore, 
that  the  two  classes  represent  relatively  similar  groups. 


MENTAL  CAPACITY 


469 


Per 
Cent 


First  Offenders 
Recidivists 


SCORE  " 

Chart  XXXIV 

Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate 

Percentage  comparison  between  first  ofifenders  and  recidivists.  English- 
speaking  cases  only. 

There  is  nothing  in  our  data  to  support  the  assertion  of  Anderson's^ 
that  "there  is  a  high  correlation  between  the  frequency  of  offense  and 
the  mental  condition  of  these  individuals ;  39.3  per  cent  of  first  offend- 
ers, 47.2  per  cent  of  second  offenders  and  84.2  per  cent  of  recidivists 
were  suffering   from   severe   mental   handicaps."     Our   definition   of 


TABLE  194 
FIRST  OFFENDERS  AND  RECIDIVISTS 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Mental  Capacity, 

as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate,  of  First  Ofifenders  and  Recidivists 

English-speaking  Cases  Only 


First 
Offenders 

Recidivists 

Difference 

d 
0-d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

75.64 
±.765 

75.68 
±.627 

-.04 

.042 

2 

(JjU 

(J 

8.96 
+  .493 

9.66 
+  .402 

-.70 

1.10 

7 

a  a   

Cases 

137 

237 

*  Anderson.  V.  V.     "The  Immoral  Woman."    Journal  of  Criminal  Law  and 
Criminology.  Vol.  8,  No.  6.     March,  1918.    p.  910. 


470     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

recidivist  differs  from  his,  since  he  defines  a  recidivist  as  one  who  has 
had  at  least  two  previous  convictions.  Moreover,  he  apparently 
includes  in  this  percentage  of  those  having  serious  mental  handicaps  a 
small  number  of  psychopathic  cases  in  addition  to  those  mentally  in- 
ferior. Even  making  all  such  allowances,  our  results  would,  how- 
ever, appear  to  be  quite  at  variance  with  his. 

(c)  Mental  Capacity  and  Factors  Connected  with  Beginnings 
of  Criminal  Career 

The  relationship  between  the  mental  capacity  of  these  women  and 
the  ages  at  which  they  were  first  convicted  is  of  interest  since  the 
common  view  is  to  the  effect  that  individuals  with  inferior  mentality 
are  more  likely  to  be  led  into  delinquency  at  an  early  age,  and,  further, 
are  less  skilful  in  evading  detection  than  are  their  more  intelligent 
associates.  Reference  to  Table  195,  which  presents  these  factors  in 
relationship  to  each  other,  reveals  at  once  the  absence  of  any  readily 
discernible  trend  of  association  between  the  two  variables  for  the 
women  delinquents  whom  we  have  studied.  The  scatter  over  all 
parts  of  the  table  is  marked,  which  is  reflected  in  the  negligible  corre- 
lation coefficient  of  —.07  ±  .052.  Even  a  closer  analysis  of  the 
table  fails  to  discover  any  significant  trends  of  relationship.  The  cor- 
relation ratio  of  test  aggregate  on  age  at  first  conviction  (.08  dz  .052) 
shows  no  appreciable  increase  over  the  correlation  coefficient,  mak- 
ing it  apparent  that  our  data  afford  no  grounds  for  inferring  the 
level  of  mentality  of  a  woman  offender  from  a  knowledge  of  her  age 
when  first  convicted.  Can  we  nevertheless  discover  any  consistent 
variations  in  age  at  first  conviction  with  varying  levels  of  mentality? 
At  first  consideration  of  the  value  of  the  ratio  (.21  ±  .050)  we  might 
hope  to  find  a  relationship  of  some  significance  even  though  small,  but 
reference  to  the  irregularity  of  the  line  of  means  indicated  by  the 
values  on  the  lowest  row  of  the  table  shows  that  it  is  impossible  even 
to  state  the  direction  of  the  association — i.e.,  whether  the  more  intelli- 
gent women  tend  to  be  convicted  at  an  earlier  or  at  a  later  age  than  do 
the  less  intelligent. 

It  is  doubtless  unnecessary  to  point  out  that  failure  to  discover  evi- 
dence of  an  association  between  these  factors  from  our  data  does  not 
prove  absence  of  any  such  relationship.  It  may  well  be  obscured  by 
the  presence  of  other  factors,  such,  for  example,  as  difference  in  social 
and  economic  backgrounds,  local  differences  in  closeness  of  police  su- 
pervision, and  other  equally  important  conditions.     Unfortunately  our 


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471 


472     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

numbers  are  not  large  enough  to  make  possible  any  control  of  these 
external  factors  by  selecting  for  consideration  only  the  more  homo- 
geneous portions  of  our  group.  The  most  that  we  can  state,  therefore, 
is  the  fact  that  the  relationship  within  our  group  is,  at  least,  not  a  suffi- 
ciently dominant  influence  to  stand  out  as  appreciable  in  amount  in 
face  of  the  other  factors  operative. 

The  situation  is  evidently  different  in  the  group  of  men  convicts 
studied  by  Goring.^  He  states  that  he  finds  a  coefficient  of  .34  for  the 
correlation  between  mental  grade  and  age  at  first  conviction,  which  he 
speaks  of  as  "a  relatively  high  degree  of  association  between  defective 
intelligence  and  conviction  at  an  early  age."  Later  he  says,  "We  con- 
clude that  undoubtedly  the  principal  factor  conducing  to  the  early  first 
conviction  of  convicts  is  defective  intelligence." 

The  relationship  between  the  mental  capacity  of  an  individual  and 
the  nature  of  the  first  offense  is  shown  in  Table  196.  In  comparing 
this  table  with  Table  189.  which  shows  a  similar  correlation  of  mental 
capacity  with  the  nature  of  the  present  offense,  it  should  be  remem- 
bered that  many  individuals  fall  inevitably  into  identical  groups  in  the 
two  tables,  since  the  first  offense  is  actually  the  present  offense  in  over 
a  third  of  the  group.    We  note,  however,  that  there  is  a  consistent  cut- 

1  ting  down  of  the  numbers  occurring  in  each  of  the  first  six  divisions 
and  an  increase  in  the  numbers  given  in  the  group  of  general  criminal- 

'  ity.  This,  as  was  explained  on  page  94,  is  easily  comprehensible  when 
it  is  understood  that  under  this  heading  are  included  all  the  semi- 
juvenile  offenses  such  as  Disobedient  Child,  Associating  with  Vicious 
and  Disorderly  Persons,  etc., — the  type  of  offense  upon  which  many 
of  the  women  who  are  convicted  young  are  first  sentenced.  In  spite 
of  the  variation  in  this  arrangement,  we  find  here  no  great  change  in 
the  amount  of  association  which  can  be  shown  to  exist  between  the 
variables.  The  correlation  ratio  between  mental  capacity  and  the  na- 
ture of  the  first  offense  is  .20  ±  .050. 

Xl'he  only  group  conspicuous  as  having  mentality  above  the  average 
AS  that  made  up  of  individuals  whose  first  offense  was  against  property. 

f'he  three  groups  which  fall  appreciably  below  the  general  average — 
ffenders  against  the  person,  against  the  family,  and  agamst  the  ad- 
tninistration  of  government — are  too  small  to  carry  any  weight. 

If  we  compare  the  means  of  each  subdivision  in  the  two  tables 
\Table  189  and  Table  196)  we  see  that  the  only  change  of  any  size  in 

=  0p.  cit.,  p.  282. 


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473 


474     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


the  mentality  of  given  groups  is  in  this  last  division  of  general  crim- 
inality. 


Offenses  against  the  Person  

Offenses  against  Chastity     

Offenses  against  Family     

Offenses  against  Public  Health  

Offenses  against  Administration  of   Gov 

ernment    

Offenses  against    Property  Rights    

General  Criminality   


Mean  Mental  Capacity  (Test  Aggregate) 

At  First  Offense     At  Present  Offense 

68.4  69.4 

75.2  75.5 

73.0  71.6 

75.9  75.3 


67.0 

67.9 

792 

78.5 

74.9 

70.6 

/vVhen  we  consider  the  group  under  the  more  general  classification 
of  misdemeanants  and  felons  on  first  conviction,  we  find  that  the  dif- 
ference is  slight  in  amount  and  not  demonstrably  certain  (see  Table 
197).  Neither  is  there  a  demonstrable  difference  in  the  variability  of 
the  two  groups.  It  will  be  noted  that  there  is  an  appreciably  smaller 
proportion  of  individuals  guilty  of  felonies  on  first  convictions  than  on 
later  conviction. 

TABLE  197 

FELONS  AND  MISDEMEANANTS  ON  FIRST  CONVICTION 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Mental  Capacity, 

as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate,  of  Those  Classified  as  Felons 

and  Misdemeanants  on  First  Conviction 

English-speaking  Cases  Only 


Felons 

Miade- 
meananta 

Difference 

d 
(Td 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

77.8 
+  1  39 

75  35 

±   519 

2  45 

1  63 

19 

(T  .   .   ,   

9.00 

±868 

9  42 
+   334 

-  42 

46 

3 

Cases 

42 

330 

If  we  consider  the  relation  of  mental  capacity  to  the  question  of 
the  disposition  of  the  cases  on  first  conviction,  we  find  a  correlation 
atio  of  .20±.050  (Table  198).  This  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the 
relationship,  though  small,  is  probably  valid.  The  means  run  in  de- 
creasmg  order-  State  Prison,  77.6;  Fines,  77. Z;  Probation,  etc.,  77.2; 
Reformatory,  76.9;  Juvenile  Institutions,  76.8;  Penitentiary  and  Work- 
house, 73.1.     It  will  be  noticed  that  the  only  mean  which  would  seetn 


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476     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

to  differ  materially  from  the  others  is  that  for  the  women  committed 
to  the  Penitentiary  and  Workhouse.  We  feel  confident  that  a  part, 
at  least,  of  the  explanation  for  this  lies  in  the  tendency  of  the  judges 
to  send  to  the  Workhouse  on  their  first  offense  colored  women  who 
"had  they  been  white"  might  have  been  put  on  probation  or  otherwise 
disposed  of.  It  has  been  shown  in  Chapter  VHI  that  a  much  larger 
percentage  of  the  colored  than  of  the  white  had  been  sent  to  institu- 
tions of  the  Penitentiary  and  the  Workhouse  type  on  their  first  con- 
victions. Table  201  shows  that  the  mean  score  which  the  colored 
women  as  a  whole  are  able  to  make  on  Test  Aggregate  is  decidedly 
lower  than  that  of  the  white,  so  that  it  seems  logical  that  an  undue 
percentage  of  colored  in  the  Workhouse  and  Penitentiary  group 
might  be  the  reason  for  the  decided  drop  in  this  mean  as  compared 
witjj  the  others. 

'  It  is  evident  that  our  figures  do  not  agree  with  those  which  Goij 
ing  offers  as  showing  that  with  progressively  more  and  more  severe 
sentences  the  mean  intelligence  of  his  subjects  increases.  We  print 
an  abbreviation  of  his  table*  and  quote  him  as  follows : 

Nature  of  First  Sentence  Intelligence:  Means 

Less  than  3  months     .59 

3  months 1.47 

6  months      2.35 

1  year   

5  years  and  over 3.63 

Birched     .58 

Reformatory    school    .64 

Birched  and  school   .30 

Fined    .10 

Nil   .25 

Total  1.38 

"It  will  be  observed  that  the  mean  intelligence  of  convicts  increases 
progressively  as  the  sentence,  resulting  from  thir  first  conviction,  for 
crime  becomes  progressively  more  and  more  severe.  Now,  in  the  case  of 
first  offenders,  a  slight  sentence  presupposes  a  trivial  offense :  from  which 
it  follows  that  the  more  mentally  defective  a  convict  may  be,  the  more 
trivial  will  his  first  offense  have  been.  ...  It  is  evident  that  the  condition 
most  closely  related  to  petty  crime,  the  most  fruitful  source  of  nearly  all 
that  is  meant  by  the  term  crime  in  this  country,  must  be  mental  de- 
fectiveness." 

It  will  be  remembered,  however,  that  his  supposition  that  a  slight 
sentence  presupposes  a  proportionately  slight  offense  does  not  strictly 

Op.  at.,  p  283. 


MENTAL  CAPACITY 


477 


apply  in  our  case,  since  with  our  women  the  same  offense,  e.g.,  solicit- 
ing, may  result  in  fines,  probation,  reformatory,  or  Workhouse  sen- 
tence, depending  upon  the  judgment  of  the  court.  The  only  indica- 
tion of  a  tendency  of  our  results  to  support  the  theory  advanced  by 
Goring  is  that  the  means  for  those  women  sent  to  state  prison  on  their 
first  offense  is  slightly  higher  than  any  other. 

As  was  shown  in  Chapter  VI,  the  number  of  those  who  have  juve- 
nile convictions-is  very  small,  only  40  cases  out  of  587.  When  these 
numbers  have  been  pruned  still  further  by  the  elimination  of  those 


Per 
Cent 


Convicted  before  21  yre. 
•  Convicted  after  21  yrs. 


Chart  XXXV 
Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate 
Percentage   comparison  between   women   convicted    first  before  21   years   of 


age  and  women  convicted  first  after  21  years  of  age. 
only. 


English-speaking  cases 


who  failed  to  be  represented  in  all  parts  of  Test  Aggregate,  the  num- 
bers become  too  small  to  be  suitable  for  statistical  treatment.  As  a 
substitute  for  this  we  have  attempted  to  group  together  those  cases 
who  were  first  convicted  before  21  years  and  those  whose  first  con- 
viction came  after  they  were  21.  Chart  XXXV  shows  the  distribution 
for  the  two.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  means  are  practically  identical  but 
the  scores  of  those  convicted  after  21  years  tend  to  scatter  more  about 
the  mean  than  those  earlier  convicted.  Table  199  proves  that  there 
is  in  fact  no  demonstrable  difference  between  the  means  but  that  the 
amount  of  difference  in  the  standard  deviations  is  almost  certainly 
valid.  We  may  say,  therefore,  that,  if  there  is  a  difference  in  the 
average  mental  capacity  of  those  whose  first  conviction  came  at  an 


478     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

TABLE  199 

FIRST  CONVICTED  BEFORE  21  YEARS  AND  FIRST  CONVICTED 
AFTER  21  YEARS  OF  AGE 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Mental  Capacity, 

as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate,  of  those  First  Convicted  before  21 

Years  and  those  First  Convicted  after  21  Years  of  Age 

English-speaking  Cases  Only 


Convicted 
before  21 

Convicted 
after  21 

Difference 

d 
0^ 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

75.70 

+  .714 

75.65 
±.664 

.050 

.0517 

2 

(Tin 

CF 

a  a 

8.53 
+  .518 

9.96 
+  .397 

-1.422 

2.178 

68 

Cases 

143 

225 

early  age  as  compared  with  those  whose  fifst  conviction  came  later 
in  life,  21  years  is  not  the  boundary  which  makes  the  separation,  but 
that  those  first  convicted  late  have  a  greater  degree  of  variability  with 
respect  to  intelligence. 

Summary 

Summarizing  our  findings  concerning  the  relationship  between  the 
mental  capacity  of  our  group  and  the  main  aspects  of  their  criminal 
records,  we  note : 

(1)  That  we  find  a  small  but  probably  significant  degree  of  asso- 
ciation when  the  mental  capacity  of  these  women  as  measured  by  Test 
Aggregate  is  related  to  the  nature  of  the  crimes  which  they  commit, 
classified  according  to  the  form  employed  by  the  New  York  City  Police 
Department.  The  mean  of  the  property  offenders  is  sensibly  better 
than  that  of  offenders  against  chastity  and  this  difference  is  demon- 
strated as  almost  certainly  valid.  We  can  say,  then,  that  the  women  of 
this  group  who  have  been  convicted  for  offenses  against  property  form 
a  group  mentally  superior  to  those  convicted  for  offenses  against  chas- 
tity. 

(2)  Dividing  the  total  group  into  misdemeanants  and  felons  we 
find  no  demonstrable  distinction  in  mental  capacity.  If  the  distinction 
between  felons  and  misdemeanants  can  be  thought  of  as  roughly  rep- 
resenting the  seriousness  of  offenses  the  indications  are  that  the  men- 


MENTAL  CAPACITY  479 

tal  capacity  of  women  offenders  varies  with  the  nature  of  the  offense 
rather  than  with  the  degree  of  the  offense.  We  hesitate  to  emphasize 
the  point,  however,  in  view  of  the  unsatisfactory  nature  of  the  dis- 
tinction between  felonies  and  misdemeanors.     (See  Chapter  VI.) 

(3)  Between  the  mental  capacity  of  these  women  as  measured  by 
Test  Aggregate  and  the  extent  of  their  criminal  record  as  measured  by 
the  number  of  previous  convictions,  we  have  found  only  very  slight 
and  more  or  less  ambiguous  indications  of  a  negative  correlation. 

Using  as  a  measure  of  criminal  tendency  the  length  of  time  a  woman 
has  been  imprisoned,  we  have  again  found  a  small  relationship  which, 
as  before,  is  not  free  from  considerable  ambiguity.  In  this  case  the 
tendency  is  toward  positive  correlation. 

In  considering  both  these  relationships,  we  have  allowed  for  the 
factor  of  present  age  and  found  that  it  made  no  appreciable  difference 
in  the  correlation. 

(4)  We  have  found  no  demonstrable  difference  between  the  men- 
tal capacity  of  recidivists  and  that  of  those  who  are  first  offenders. 

(5)  No  evidence  is  available  from  our  data  to  show  the  existence 
of  an  appreciable  correlation  between  mental  capacity  and  age  at  first 
conviction. 

(6)  We  found  a  correlation  ratio  between  intellectual  capacity  and 
nature  of  first  offense,  arranged  according  to  the  New   York  City   ^ 
Police  Department  classification,  very  similar  to  that  found  between  ; 
intellectual  capacity  and  the  present  offense  so  classified.  I 

(7)  Classifying  the  first  offense  as  misdemeanors  or  felonies,  we 
found  a  slight  difference  between  the  two  groups  in  favor  of  the  felons, 
but  a  difference  not  convincingly  valid. 

(8)  A  small  relationship  was  found  to  exist  between  the  mental  I 
capacity  of  the  women  and  the  disposition  of  their  case  on  first  offense.  I 
We  note  that  the  group  of  women  who,  on  first  conviction,  were  sen- 
tenced to  the  Penitentiary  or  the  Workhouse,  is  separated  from  the 
others  by  a  greater  interval  than  occurs  elsewhere.  We  are  inclined 
to  think  this  may  be  explained  by  the  large  percentage  of  colored 
women  committed  to  these  institutions,  whose  mental  capacity  is 
found  to  be  inferior  to  that  of  the  white  women. 

(9)  We  have  found  no  demonstrable  difference  in  the  average 
mental  capacity  of  those  first  convicted  before  21  and  those  first  con- 
victed at  a  later  age,  but  have  found  that  those  who  were  convicted  1 

...  .  I 

later   show  a   greater   variability   around   their  mean  than   do   those  i 

whose  first  conviction  was  earlier.  ^     ' 


480     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

MENTAL    CAPACITY    IN    RELATION    TO    GENERAL    FACTORS 

There  are  certain  general  factors  whose  relation  to  mental  capacity 
one  feels  called  upon  to  consider  and  which,  although  not  properly  asso- 
ciated have,  for  convenience  of  handling,  been  grouped  together  in 
Chapter  VII  and  will  be  so  treated  here. 

(a)  Mental  Capacity  and  Age 

We  have  considered  first  the  matter  of  age  as  it  relates  to  intel- 
lectual capacity.  Table  200  shows  the  correlation  which  exists  between 
the  two.  The  coefficient  obtained  is  practically  zero,  — .01  ±.052. 
Calculating  the  ratios  shows  one  to  be  negligible,  .08d=.051  and  the 
other  to  be  slight,  .18±.050,  but  considering  the  irregularity  of  its  line 
;  of  means,  not  very  significant.  We  feel  safe  in  saying,  then,  that  our 
results  tend  to  confirm  the  belief  that,  among  adults,  there  is  little  if 
any  variation  in  mental  capacity  with  age. 

This  fact  is  especially  important  since  the  factor  of  age  is  one  which 
seemingly  should  be  allowed  for  in  many  correlations,  but  which,  by 
reason  of  the  small  size  of  its  correlation  with  intelligence,  has,  as  we 
have  seen  in  the  partial  obtained  between  mental  capacity  and  num- 
ber of  convictions  with  age  constant,  made  only  an  insignificant  change 
in  the  size  of  the  coefficient,  thereby  relieving  us  of  the  necessity  of 
making  this  allowance  in  many  cases. 

{h)  Mental  Capacity  and  Classification   by   Color  and  Nativity 

In  order  to  consider  next  the  question  of  color  in  its  relation  to 
mental  capacity  as  measured  by  Test  Aggregate,  we  have  plotted  the 
distribution  curves  as  shown  in  Chart  XXXVI.  It  requires  only  the 
most  casual  inspection  of  this  chart  to  prove  the  decided  superiority  of 
the  white  women.  The  white  women  are  represented  at  the  extreme 
lower  end  of  the  scale,  it  is  true, but  the  curve  of  the  colored  women  rises 
to  its  summit  and  falls  away  again  at  an  earlier  point  than  that  of  the 
white  and  is  moreover  unrepresented  in  the  last  interval.  The  means 
are  77. 13 ±.442  for  the  white  as  against  70.91  ±.839  for  the  colored. 
Table  201  shows  that  this  difference  is  unquestionably  significant.  We 
have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  then,  that  there  exists  a  decided  differ- 
ence in  mental  capacity  between  the  colored  and  the  white  women  as 
measured  by  this  standard.  As  regards  the  amount  of  variability  dis- 
played by  the  two  groups,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  they  are  nearly 
identical. 


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482     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


Per 

Cent 


White 
Colored 


SCORE 

Chart   XXXVI 

Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate 

Percentage  comparison  between   white    (407)    and  colored    (113). 
speaking  cases   only. 


English- 


For  further  interest  we  have  figured  here  also  the  percentage  dis- 
tribution curves  for  the  colored  and  white  women  on  the  Yerkes- 
Bridges  Point  Scale,  the  Stanford-Binet,  and  our  group  of  Perform- 
ance Tests.     Charts  XXXVII,  XXXVIII,  and  XXXIX  show  these. 

An  inspection  of  these  makes  it  clear  that  they  agree  in  showing  the 
white  to  be  clearly  a  superior  group.     It  is  significant  that  the  tests 


TABLE  201 

COLORED  AND  WHITE 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Mental  Capacity, 
as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate,  of  Colored  and  White  Women 


English-speaking 

Cases  Only 

White 

Colored 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exi.st  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

77.03 

±.442 

70.91 
±.839 

6.12 

6.45 

oo 

(Tja 

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8.91 
+  .305 

8.92 
±.654 

-.01 

.083 

2 

<7a 

Cases 

407 

113 

MENTAL  CAPACITY 


483 


Per 
Cent 


^  ^  M«  M»     Colored 


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I         I  ' n 

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i i I         I         i.  _  J 

J  • 

__J '   . .  L_. 


24  30  36  42  48  54  60  66  72  78  84  90  96  102 

POINTS  *"^" 

Chart  XXXVII 

Mental    Capacity   as    Measured   by   Yerkes-Bridges    Point    Scale 

Percentage  comparison  between  white    (478)    and  colored    (129).     English- 
speaking  cases  only. 


Per 
Cent 


_  _  _  ^   Colored 


INTELLIGENCE  QUOTIENT 

Chart  XXXVIII 

Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Stanford-Binet 

Percentage  comparison  between  white   (447)    and  colored   (118). 
speaking  cases  only. 


Engl'sh- 


484     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


Per 
Cent 


White 
Colored 


Chart  XXXIX 

Mental   Capacity  as   Measured  by   Performance  Tests 

Percentage  comparison  between  white    (453)    and  colored    (107). 

in  which  language  is  not  involved  agree  with  the  other  types  of  tests 
in  these  findings.    The  constants  for  each  are  shown  below. 


Mean 

White 

Colored 

White 

Colored 

Test  Aggregate 

77.03 
+  .442 

70.91 

+  .839 

8.91 
±.305 

8.92 

±.654 

Yerkes-Bridges  Scale . 

71.80 
±.608 

65.4 
±1.30 

13.29 
±.416 

14.82 
±.687 

Stanford-Binet 

73.25 
+  .661 

65.4 
±1.10 

14.01 

±.713 

11.90 
±.461 

Performance  Tests . . . 

73.78 
+  .379 

69.26 

±.777 

8.08 
±.367 

8.04 
±.596 

r 

Our  only  possible  basis  of  comparing  native  with  foreign  groups 
with  respect  to  mentality  is  the  group  of  Performance  Tests,  since 
these  can  be  given  to  all  individuals.  In  the  present  comparison  we 
have  distinguished  the  groups  in  accordance  with  our  classification  of 
English-speaking  versus  non-English-speaking  (see  page  59)  rather 
than  on  an  exact  basis  of  nativity.  Chart  XL  shows  the  .-elationship 
.between  these  two  groups.  The  superiority  of  the  English-speaking 
'group,  by  this  measure,  is  readily  apparent.  Its  mean  is  sufficiently 
higher  than  that  of  the  non-English-speaking  group  so  that  there  is 
no  question  of  the  validity  of  the  difference  (73.67±.363  as  against 


MENTAL  CAPACITY 


485 


67.95±.957)  and  the  higher  location  of  the  mode  may  be  seen  by  in- 
spection. Whether  the  superiority  indicated  in  favor  of  the  English- 
speaking  delinquent  women  over  the  non-English-speaking  can  be 
considered  wholly  established  remains,  however,  something  of  a  ques- 
tion, since  it  is  probable  that  at  least  a  slight  handicap  persists  for  the 
very  foreign  and  frequently  wholly  uneducated  women  of  the  non-j 


Per 
Cent 


20 
15  I 
10    « 
5     - 


Enelish-SpeaklnK 
"•^^  — —  Non  English-Speaklne 


SCORE  '*■ 

Chart  XL 

Mental  Capacity  as   Measured  by  Performance  Tests 

Percentage    comparison    between    English-speaking    cases     (486)    and    non- 
English-speaking  cases  (74). 

English-speaking  group.  Accordingly,  we  would  not  emphasize  this  \ 
distinction  overmuch,  but  merely  offer  the  comparison  as  the  best  \ 
which  our  data  make  possible. 

(c)  Mental  Capacity  and  Use  of  Drugs  and  Alcohol 

We  have  attempted  to  see  if  the  using  of  drugs  or  alcohol  has  had 
any  effect  on  the  mental  capacity  of  these  women  as  measured  by  Test 
Aggregate.  Chart  XLI  shows  the  distribution  of  those  women  who 
have  used  drugs  in  comparison  with  those  that  have  not.  As  will  be 
seen  the  curves  resemble  each  other  closely.  The  means  are  almost  iden- 
tical and  Table  202  shows  that  the  slight  difference  can  not  be  demon- 
strated as  significant.  The  difference  in  the  variability  shown  by  the 
two  groups  is  likewise  very  small  and  not  demonstrably  significant.  We 
feel  safe  in  concluding,  therefore,  that  delinquent  women  who  have 
been  addicted  to  drugs  do  not  differ  appreciably  in  mental  capacity 
from  those  who  have  not. 


486     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


Per 
Cent 


Drug-Users 


•  ^  — —^    Nod  Drue-Users 


Chart  XLI 

Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate 

Percentage    comparison    between    drug-users    and    non-drug-users.      English- 
speaking  cases  only. 

//  In  order  to  measure  the  possible  relation  between  mental  capacity 
and  the  use  of  alcohol  we  have  calculated  a  correlation  ratio  with 
mental  capacity  as  the  quantitative  variable  and  the  use  of  alcohol, 
classified  as  excessive,  moderate,  and  non-alcoholic,  as  the  qualitative. 
We  have  added  to  the  first  group  those  cases  from  the  special  "Intoxi- 
cation Group"  at  the  Workhouse  that  were  tested  by  Test  Aggregate. 
Table  203  shows  the  correlation  of  the  two  factors.     The  correlation 


TABLE  202 

DRUG-USERS  AND  NON  DRUG-USERS 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Mental  Capacity, 
as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate,  of  Drug-users  and  Non-Drug-users 

English-speaking  Cases  Only 


Drug-users 

Non-  Drug- 
users 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  doea 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

75.71 

+  .986 

75.63 

+  .570 

.08 

.076 

2 

(7          

9.03 

+  .668 

9.57 
+  .361 

-.54 

.703 

4 

Co-        

Cases     

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488     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


ratio  obtained  is  practically  zero,  .044 dr. 051.  On  the  chance  that  this 
distinction  was  too  fine  and  the  possible  difference  might  be  between 
those  who  have  used  alcohol  to  excess  and  those  who  have  not,  we 
have  grouped  together  the  moderate  users  and  the  non-alcoholics  and 
compared  them  with  those  who  have  used  alcohol  to  excess.  Chart  XLII 
shows  the  relative  distributions.  The  difference  in  both  the  central 
tendency  and  the  amount  of  variability  is  negligible  (see  Table  204). 


Per 
Cent 


•»  —  ———   Not  excessively  alcoholic 

— 

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l-._- 

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_- .  - 

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♦ 

Chart  XLII 

Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate 

Percentage  comparison  between  women  who  have  been  excessively  alcoholic 
and  women  who  have  not  been  excessively  alcoholic.  English-speaking  cases 
only. 

We  feel,  therefore,  justified  in  stating  that  those  of  our  group  who 
have  been  alcoholic,  however  this  term  may  be  interpreted,  do  not  differ 
significantly  with  respect  to  mental  capacity  from  those  that  have  not. 

Summary 

Summarizing  this  section,  then,  we  can  say : 

(1)  Our  data  confirm  the  accepted  theory  that  for  a  group  of 
adults  there  is  no  demonstrable  correlation  between  mental  capacity 
and  age. 

1  (2)  Our  results  show  also  that  white  women  of  our  delinquent 
groups  are  superior  in  intellectual  capacity  to  colored  women.  We 
have  found  little  difference  in  the  degree  of  variability  shown  between 
the  white  and  colored  groups.  The  evidence  at  hand  indicates,  further, 
that  the  women  delinquents,  born  in  English-speaking  countries,  are 
somewhat  superior  to  those  born  in  non-English-speaking  countries. 


MENTAL  CAPACITY 


489 


TABLE  204 

EXCESSIVELY  ALCOHOLIC  AND  NOT  EXCESSIVELY  ALCOHOLIC 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Mental  Capacity, 

as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate,  for  those  Excessively  Alcoholic 

and  those  not  Excessively  Alcoholic.   Total  Group  Including 

Special  Intoxication  Group  from  Workhouse 


English-speaking 

Cases  Only 

Excessively 
Alcoholic 

Not 
Excessively 
Alcoholic 

Difference 

d 
0-d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

74.95 
±.995 

75 .  69 
±.546 

-.74 

.655 

4 

Cm 

(T 

(T(T 

9.64 

±.703 

9.25 
±353 

.39 

.499 

3 

Cases 

94 

287 

(3)  We  have  found  no  demonstrable  difference  between  the  men- 
tal capacity  of  those  women  who  have  used  drugs  and  those  who  have 
not,  and  no  demonstrable  difference  in  the  mental  capacity  of  the 
women  who  have  used  alcohol  and  those  who  have  not. 


MENTAL   CAPACITY    IN   RELATION    TO    HOME   CONDITIONS 

We  will  consider  next  the  relationship  between  the  mental  capacity 
of  these  women  and  (1)  the  home  conditions  which  surrounded  them 
in  childhood  and  adolescence,  and  (2)  the  possible  hereditary  factors 
which  might  have  affected  their  mentality. 

(a)  Mental  Capacity  and  Estimate  of  Home  Conditions 

In  order  to  examine  the  first  of  these  relationships  we  have  plotted 
the  correlation  between  mental  capacity  as  measured  by  Test  Aggregate 
and  the  estimate  of  home  conditions  (Table  205).  This  estimate  of 
home  conditions,  as  was  earlier  stated,  has  been  based  upon  a  com- 
bination of  the  several  factors  of  economic  condition,  moral  standards 
and  parental  supervision.  This  has  then  been  divided  into  five  grades, 
grade  1  being  the  lowest  in  order  of  excellence.  The  correlation  ratio 
obtained  is  .31  ±.053,  which  indicates  that  there. is  a  clear  degree  of 
relationship  existent  between  the  mental  capacity  of  these  women  and 


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MENTAL  CAPACITY  491 

the  excellence  of  their  home  conditions  in  early  life.  As  has  been 
noted  earlier  (cf.  Chapter  IX),  it  has  been  necessary  to  omit  the  Work- 
house group  from  the  comparison  because  of  the  impossibility  of  veri- 
fying such  data  on  many  of  this  group  and  the  evident  tendency  to  ex- 
aggeration in  their  own  statements  on  this  particular  matter. 

We  have  plotted  also  (Table  206)  the  relation  betv^^een  mental 
capacity  and  economic  status  alone, — one  of  the  factors  which  go  to 
make  up  the  estimate  of  the  home  conditions — and  find  that  the  cor- 
relation ratio  obtained  is  identical  with  the  preceding  ratio,  .31  ±.053. 
Measured  either  by  the  economic  status  alone  or  by  the  estimate  of 
home  conditions,  there  is  a  clear  tendency  for  those  women  whose 
early  home  condions  have  been  good  to  make  a  better  showing  on 
Test  Aggregate  than  do  those  who  come  from  poorer  homes. 

(b)  Mental  Capacity  and  Hereditary  Factors 

We  have  next  considered  the  possible  effect  of  heredity  on  the  men- 
tal capacity  of  these  women.  Data  have  been  collected  by  social  inves- 
tigation on  many  factors,  such  as  alcoholism,  insanity,  venereal  dis- 
ease, etc.,  in  the  family  which  have  been  recognized,  more  or  less  uni- 
versally, as  possible  causes  of  defective  intelligence  in  the  offspring. 
When,  however,  we  have  attempted  to  compute  these  separately  our 
numbers  were  found  to  be  too  small  to  be  reliable,  and  if  we  try  to  sub- 
divide these  again  into  the  presence  of  any  one  factor  in  one  parent 
alone  we  still  further  reduce  our  figures.  Recognizing  the  impossibility 
of  making  any  reliable  comparisons  in  this  exact  way,  we  have,  there- 
fore, considered  the  presence  of  any  one  of  these  factors  in  either 
parent,  or  in  the  siblings  where  the  defect  was  present  from  early 
childhood,  and  have  called  it  possible  evidence  of  a  defective  strain  in 
the  heredity.  We  have  disregarded  cases  beyond  the  immediaie  fam- 
ily. The  factors  which  we  have  taken  account  of  are  alcoholism, 
amentia,  epilepsy,  insanity,  neurotic  constitution,  gonorrhea  and 
syphilis.  These  may  not  all  be  factors  universally  recognized  as  either 
symptomatic  of  or  productive  of  hereditary  defect  and  there  are  prob- 
ably others  of  importance  of  which  we  have  taken  no  account.  The 
varying  amounts  of  each  of  these  factors  in  our  group  are  given  in 
Table  79,  Chapter  IX.  Cases  where  the  field  workers  had  been  unable 
to  obtain  any  data  whatever  on  this  point  were  omitted  altogether. 
There  were  129  cases  where  defective  strain  was  present  in  father, 
mother  or  siblings,  and  231  where  there  was  no  indication  of  such. 
The  mean  for  the  former  is  75.26rb.816  and  that  for  the  latter  75.79 


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MENTAL  CAPACITY 


493 


±.621.  The  standard  deviations  were  respectively  9.26±.577  and 
9.44±.439.  The  differences  are  insignificant  and,  as  Table  207  shows, 
can  not  be  demonstrated  as  conditioned  by  anything  other  than  chance. 

TABLE  207 

DEFECTIVE  STRAIN  AND  NOT  DEFECTIVE  STRAIN 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Mental  Capacity, 

as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate,  of  those  whose  Immediate  Family 

Show  Defective  Strain  and  those  whose  Immediate 

Family  Show  No  Defective  Strain 

English-speaking  Cases  Only 


Defective 
Strain 

No  Defective 
Strain 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

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(Tin 

75.26 
±.816 

75.79 
±.621 

-.53 

.515 

3 

<7 

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9.26 

±.577 

9.44 
±.439 

-.18 

.248 

2 

Cases 

129 

231 

As  far  as  our  data  are  significant,  therefore,  we  have  nothing  to 
prove  that  the  mental  capacity  of  these  women,  as  measured  by  Test 
Aggregate,  is  in  any  way  affected  by  the  presence  of  what  we  have 
termed  defective  strain  in  the  immediate  family. 

Summary 

We  can  say  in  summary,  then : 

(1)  That  there  is  a  small  but  significant  degree  of  association  be- 
tween mental  capacity  and  the  kind  of  home  conditions  by  which  these 
individuals  were  surrounded  in  early  life. 

(2)  We  have  been  unable  to  demonstrate  any  relationship  between 
mental  capacity  and  the  presence  in  the  immediate  family  of  a  defective 
strain  represented  by  any  cases  of  alcoholism,  amentia,  epilepsy,  in- 
sanity, neurotic  constitution  or  venereal  disease. 

MENTAL  CAPACITY   IN  RELATION   TO  EDUCATIONAL  BACKGROUND 

A  twofold  interest  attaches  to  the  question  of  the  relation  between 
mental  capacity  as  measured  by  any  of  our  tests  and  the  educational 


494     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

background  of  the  women  under  consideration.  We  are  interested  to 
know,  first,  whether  our  data  cast  any  light  on  the  assumption,  fre- 
quently made  in  Chapter  X,  to  the  effect  that  the  grade  finished  is  of 
itself  something  of  an  index  of  the  intelligence  of  the  individual  and 
that  this  is  true  of  the  measures  of  educational  opportunity  to  much 
slighter  degree.  On  the  other  hand,  we  are  concerned  to  know 
whether  the  relationship  between  schooling  and  education  is  so  close 
as  to  suggest  that  in  our  tests  we  are  measuring  the  influence  of  educa- 
tion rather  than  native  ability. 

We  have  attempted  to  answer  these  questions  by  the  use  of  several 
different  combinations  of  data.  First,  using  the  total  English-speaking 
portion  of  our  delinquent  group,  on  whom  we  had  both  the  test  results 
and  the  necessary  information  on  schooling,  we  obtained  the  following 
correlations : 

Correlation  of  iMental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate  with 

Age  at  Leaving  School  Number  of  Years  in  School  Grade  Finished 

r  =  .27  ±  .049  (352  cases)  .29  ±  .046  (383  cases)        .60  ±  .032  (383  cases) 

(The  correlation  array  for  the  first  of  the  above  relationships  is  given 
in  Table  208.     The  others  are  not  shown.) 

From  these  figures  it  is  apparent  that  there  is  a  much  higher  rela- 
tionship of  mental  capacity,  thus  measured,  with  grade  finished  than 
with  either  age  at  leaving  school  or  number  of  years  in  school.  Ob- 
taining the  partial  correlation  coefficient  of  mental  capacity  with  grade, 
for  years  in  school  constant,  we  find  that  r  =  54.  It  is  very  little  af- 
fected by  controlling  the  factor  of  school  opportunity  in  the  sense  of 
the  number  of  years  spent  in  school.  On  the  other  hand  the  partial 
correlation  coefficient  of  mental  capacity  with  years  in  school  for  con- 
stant grade  drops  to  zero  (.003).  It  appears  therefore  that  length  of 
,  time  spent  in  school  is  symptomatic  of  intelligence  only  to  a  very  slight 
degree  and  only  when  it  shows  results  in  appropriate  grade  accom- 
plishment:  but  that  the  grade  attained  has  a  much  higher  diagnostic 
value  and  that  this  value  is  not  greatly  affected  by  differences  in  school 
opportunity. 

To  determine  how  these  relationships  were  affected  by  more  ac- 
curate information  the  same  correlations  were  computed,  using  only 
those  cases  on  whom  we  had  verified  record  of  both  years  in  school 
and  grade,  with  the  following  results :  The  correlation  of  mental  ca- 
\  pacity,  measured  by  Test  Aggregate,  with  years  in  school  was  found  to 
be  .32   (159  cases):  that  of  mental  capacity  with  grade  finished  .75 


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496     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

(164  cases).  (The  latter  correlation  is  figured  in  Table  209.)  It  is 
evident  that  these  results  confirm  the  evidence  of  the  foregoing  cor- 
relations, showing  an  even  more  striking  relationship  between  intelli- 
gence and  grade. 

To  test  still  further  the  significance  of  this  relationship  we  com- 
puted the  correlations  of  mental  capacity  both  as  measured  by  Stanford- 
Binet  and  as  measured  by  the  Performance  Tests,  with  the  measures 
of  schooling — years  in  school  and  grade.  These  correlations  were 
based  on  completely  verified  data  for  80  Bedford  cases.  The  inter- 
relations of  the  various  factors  for  this  particular  group  are  shown 
below: 

Stanford-Binet  Years  in  School     Grade 

Years  in  School .23 

Grade    74  .39 

Performance   Tests    .60  .36  .70 

The  partial  correlation  of  Stanford-Binet  with  grade,  for  constant 
number  of  years  in  school,  is  .721 :  that  of  Stanford-Binet  with  years 
in  school,  for  constant  grade,  is  — .095.  The  partial  coefficient  of  the 
Performance  Tests  with  grade,  for  constant  years  in  school,  is  .644 : 
that  of  the  Performance  Tests  with  years  in  school,  for  constant  grade, 
is  .133.  These  figures,  therefore,  are  entirely  in  accord  with  our  pre- 
vious findings.  The  Performance  Tests,  it  may  be  noted,  show  the 
contrasts  less  strikingly  than  do  either  Stanford-Binet  or  Test  Aggre- 
gate. 

Summary 

J-'     (1)   Whatever  measure  of  intelligence  we  have  used — Test  Ag- 
'^gregate,   Stanford-Binet,  or  Performance  Tests — a  high  relationship 
with  school  grade  has  appeared,  but  only  a  slight  relationship  with 
number  of  years  in  school. 

(2)  This  confirms  our  impression  that  grade  attainment,  in  itself, 
affords  some  index  of  one's  mentality. 

(3)  The  fact  that  the  correlation  of  the  results  of  the  various 
intelligence  tests  with  grade  is  so  high,  while  that  of  test  results  with 
years  in  school  is  so  low,  and  that,  moreover,  the  partial  correlation 
of  test  results  with  grade,  for  constant  number  of  years  in  school,  is 
^igh,  while  that  of  test  results  with  years  in  school,  for  constant  grade. 
is  zero  or  nearly  zero,  is  sufficient  to  allay  any  fears  that  the  test  results 
measure  effect  of  schooling  rather  than  mentality.  Were  this  the 
case  there  is  every  reason  to  expect  that  we  should  find  approximately 


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498     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

as  high  a  correlation  with  the  time  spent  in  school  as  with  the  grade 
achieved,  or  possibly  even  a  higher  correlation. 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  IN  RELATION  TO  WORK  RECORD 

We  will  next  consider  the  relation  between  mental  capacity  as 
measured  by  Test  Aggregate  and  the  various  phases  of  the  work  rec- 
ord of  these  women.  It  would  seem  a  justifiable  assumption  that,  all 
other  considerations  being  eliminated,  the  better  the  mentality  of  an 
individual  the  better  would  be  the  work  that  she  could  do  and,  conse- 
quently, the  greater  would  be  her  earning  capacity. 

(a)  Mental  Capacity  and  Age  at  Starting  Work 

Following  the  order  adopted  in  Chapter  XI,  we  have  first  considered 
the  age  at  starting  work  in  its  relation  to  mental  capacity,  in  order 
to  attempt  to  find  out  whether  there  is  any  tendency  for  the  brighter 
women  to  start  work  at  an  earlier  age  than  those  less  bright,  or  whether 
this  condition  is  just  reversed  and  it  is  the  stupider  women  who  seek 
employment  younger,  or  whether  neither  fact  can  be  demonstrated, 
and  the  factor  of  mentality  is  in  no  way  concerned  with  the  age  at 
which  they  begin  working.  We  have,  accordingly,  plotted  the  corre- 
lation which  is  figured  in  Table  210.  The  correlation  coefficient  is 
found  to  be  .19±.053.  The  correlation  ratios  are  only  slightly  larger: 
.26zt.051  for  the  ratio  of  age  at  first  employment  on  Score  in  Test 
Aggregate  and  .24±:.052  for  score  in  Test  Aggregate  on  age  at  first 
employment. 

The  widest  divergence  of  the  means  in  adjacent  groups  lies  between 
those  starting  work  from  10  to  14  years  and  those  starting  work  from 
14  to  18.  If  we  take  the  percentage  of  cases  in  these  two  age  groups 
which  lie  above  and  below  the  approximate  mean  of  the  group  in  Test 
Aggregate,  we  find  that,  of  those  who  start  work  between  10  and  14 
years  of  age,  38  per  cent  are  above  the  average  in  mental  capacity  as 
measured  by  Test  Aggregate  and  62  per  cent  are  below,  while  for  those 
starting  work  between  14  and  18,  58.7  per  cent  are  above  average  in- 
tellectually and  41.3  per  cent  are  below.  This  fact  undoubtedly  links 
up  with  the  correlation  between  intellectual  capacity  and  age  at  leaving 
school,  which  gives  a  coefficient  of  .32±. 049,  indicating  a  distinct  ten- 
dency for  the  less  intelligent  women  to  leave  school  at  an  earlier  age 
(see  Chapter  X).  This  in  turn  would  probably  be  a  factor  in  deter- 
mining the  age  at  starting  work.     The  significance,  in  this  connection. 


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500     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

of  the  age  of  fourteen  as  the  common  upper  age  Hmit  in  Compulsory 
education  laws  need  hardly  be  emphasized. 

(b)  Mental  Capacity  and  Kind  of  Work 

We  considered  next  the  relation  of  intellectual  capacity  to  the  nature 
of  the  work,  in  order  to  see  if  women  of  one  grade  of  intelligence  tend 
to  find  employment  in  one  line  of  work  while  those  of  another 
grade  gravitate  toward  another  occupation.  To  this  end  we  have  made 
a  correlation  table  (Table  211)  with  Test  Aggregate  as  the  quantitative 
variable  and  the  occupations  of  domestic  service,  factory  work,  home 
work,  restaurant  and  hotel  work,  work  in  stores,  vaudeville  perfo*-m- 
ance,  clerical  work,  professional  service,  personal  service,  w^ork  of 
charwoman,  and  miscellaneous,  at  which  these  women  were  mainly 
employed,  as  a  series  of  qualitative  arrays.  From  such  a  table  we  have 
obtained  a  correlation  ratio  of  .46±:.043.  This  would  seem  to  be  clear 
indication  that  there  is  a  decided  degree  of  relationship  between  the 
mental  capacity  so  measured  and  the  kind  of  work  at  which  a  woman 
has  been  predominantly  employed. 

If  we  compare  Table  211  with  Table  212,  which  shows  the  relation 
between  mental  capacity  and  the  nature  of  the  first  work  in  which  the 
women  were  engaged,  we  find  that  the  respective  means  are  on  the 
whole  very  similar.  The  means  for  mental  capacity  (Test  Aggregate) 
run  in  order  of  excellence : 

First  Work  Prevailing  Work 

Professional  service    (4)    36.0  87.5  Professional  service   (2) 

Clerical  work    (15)    83.6  86.6  Personal  service   (7) 

Vaudeville  performers   (11)    ....83.0  82.5  Vaudeville  performers   (16) 

Personal    service    (5)    81.6  82.3  Work  in  stores  (37) 

Work  in   stores    (40)    80.7  81.3  Clerical  work   (9) 

Restaurant  and  hotel  work  (24)  76.9  79.6  Restaurant  and  hotel  work  (21) 

Home  work  (7)    76.9  75.4  Home  work  (12) 

Factory  work  ( 102)   75.7  75.1  Factory  work  88) 

Miscellaneous  (7)   74.3  72.3  Miscellaneous    (3) 

Domestic  service  (141)    72.1  71.8  Domestic  service    (142) 

Charwomen    ( 1 )    59.0  67.0  Charwomen  (2) 

The  correlation  ratio  obtained  for  mental  capacity  on  the  nature 
of  first  work  is  .41=h.044.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  arrangement  of  the 
means  is  in  general  similar  for  the  nature  of  work  in  the  first  job  and 
in  the  prevailing  job,  and  it  seems  clearly  evident  that  the  mental  ca- 
pacity of  these  women  is  a  factor  in  determining  both  the  kind  of  work 
which  they  first  enter  and  that  which,  subsequently,  they  continue  to 


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MENTAL  CAPACITY 


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do.     The  small  number  of  cases  in  many  of  the  above  groups  has  de- 
terred us  from  making  detailed  inter-comparisons. 

Since,  however,  the  domestic  service  group  contains  over  40  per 
cent  of  the  cases  we  have  made  a  comparison  between  the  mental 
capacity  of  this  group  and  that  of  women  employed  at  occupations 
other  than  domestic  service.  The  mean  for  domestic  service  is  71.83± 
.802  and  for  all  other  occupations  78.25 ±.613.     Table  213  indicates 

TABLE  213 
DOMESTIC  SERVICE  AND  NOT  DOMESTIC  SERVICE 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Mental  Capacity, 

as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate,  of  those  whose  Prevailing  Work 

is  Domestic  Service  and  those  whose  Prevailing  Work  is 

other  than  Domestic  Service 

English-speaking  Cases  Only 


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Chart  XLIII 
Mental   Capacity  as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate 
Percentage    comparison    between    those    whose    prevaiHng    work    has    been 
domestic  service  and  those  whose  prevailing  work  has  been  other  than  domestic 
service.     English-speaking  cases  only. 


504     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

the  validity  of  the  distinction  in  favor  of  those  employed  at  occu- 
pations other  than  domestic  work.  Chart  XLIII  shows  the  marked  dif- 
ference in  distribution  for  the  two  groups,  making  evident  that  the 
higher  standing  shown  by  the  mean  is  based  on  no  eccentric  massing 
but  is  due  both  to  higher  percentages  of  cases  with  superior  mental 
ratings  and  lower  percentages  with  inferior  ratings.  We  are,  there- 
fore, justified  in  stating  that  the  women  whose  prevailing  work  is  do- 
mestic service  are  less  mentally  capable  on  the  average  than  those  who 
are  employed  at  other  occupations. 

(c)  Mental  Capacity  and  Wage 

We  have  next  considered  the  possible  relationship  which  one  would 
expect  to  find  between  mental  capacity  and  the  economic  status  of  these 
women  as  represented  by  the  average  weekly  wage  which  they  have 
received  at  their  prevailing  work.  The  method  of  assembling  these  data 
on  the  work  record  has  already  been  explained  in  Chapter  XL  There 
has  been  explained  also  the  necessity  of  dividing  the  material  on  wage 
earned  into  two  groups,  domestic  service  and  allied  occupations  where 
board  and  lodging  are  in  addition  to  the  wage,  and  occupations  other 
than  domestic  service  which  provide  no  maintenance.  If  we  plot  the 
figures  on  the  former  of  these,  i.e.,  average  wage  of  women  whose  pre- 
vailing work  has  been  domestic  service  in  relation  to  their  mental 
capacity  as  measured  by  Test  Aggregate,  we  obtain  Table  214.  The 
correlation  coefificient  obtained  is  very  low,  — .03dz.089.  The  correla- 
tion ratios  are  .14±.087  for  the  regression  of  wage  on  Test  Aggregate 
and  .09zh.088  for  the  regression  of  Test  Aggregate  on  wage,  both 
negligible.  Our  results,  therefore,  fail  to  show  any  relationship  be- 
tween the  mental  capacity  of  w^omen  whose  prevailing  work  was  do- 
mestic service  and  their  average  wage. 

When  we  come  next  to  compare  the  scores  obtained  on  this  test 
with  the  wage  obtained  at  occupations  other  than  domestic  service,  we 
find  the  situation  easier  of  interpretation.  Table  215  shows  the  rela- 
tion of  these  factors  to  each  other.  The  correlation  coefficient  obtained 
:  is  .31  ±.070,  which  would  seem  to  indicate  a  clear  and,  in  the  light  of 
its  standard  deviation,  significant,  correlation  between  the  two.  We 
may  say  in  general  that,  as  the  mental  capacity  of  these  women  in- 
creases, there  is  a  progressive  increase  in  the  amount  of  money  they 
earn  at  occupations  other  than  domestic  service.  This  is  of  interest  in 
view  of  our  inability  to  establish  any  such  relationship  between  mental 
capacity  and  the  amount  earned  at  domestic  service. 


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Although  there  is  no  appreciable  correlation  between  mental  capac- 
ity and  age,  there  is  a  correlation  of  .264  between  age  and  wage  earned 
at  these  occupations.  We  have,  therefore,  felt  called  upon  to  compute 
a  partial  correlation  between  mental  capacity  and  wage  with  age  con- 
stant. The  result  obtained  is  .323 ±.068,  a  coefficient  not  appreciably 
different  from  the  preceding.  Since  there  is  practically  no  correlation 
between  age  and  wage  at  domestic  service  we  have  not  felt  it  necessary 
to  make  this  correction  there. 

The  correlation  between  mental  capacity  measured  by  Test  Aggre- 
gate and  the  wage  earned  at  first  job  for  the  women  in  domestic 
service  and  allied  occupations  is  .03 ±.094.  For  those  in  occupations 
other  than  domestic  service  this  correlation  i.s  .29±.069.  Since  these 
appear  to  resemble  quite  closely  the  corresponding  correlations  of  men- 
tal capacity  with  prevailing  wage,  we  have  not  presented  the  scatter 
tables  for  these  relationships. 

{d)  Mental  Capacity  and  Estimates  of  Work  Record 

We  have  next  attempted  to  find  out  whether  there  is  any  relation 
between  the  mental  capacity  of  these  women  and  the  regularity  with 
which  they  have  held  employment.  Table  216  shows  such  a  correla- 
tion where  regularity  of  employment  is  divided  into  five  grades 
(see  Chapter  XI).  The  correlation  ratio  (.13  ±  .053)  indicates  that 
there  is  at  most  only  a  very  slight  association  between  mental  ca- 
pacity and  regularity  of  employment.  There  are  undoubtedly  some 
whose  irregular  work  record  is  the  result  of  their  mental  incom- 
petence, which  prevents  their  holding  a  job  for  any  length  of  time, 
but  there  are  others  mentally  well  equipped  whose  failure  in  this 
respect  must  be  explained  by  some  wholly  different  factor. 

If  we  consider  last  the  relation  of  mental  capacity  to  the  estimate 
of  the  efficiency  of  the  work  record,  we  obtain  Table  217.  (The  ex- 
planation of  the  method  of  arriving  at  this  estimate  is  given  in  Chapter 
XI.)  The  correlation  ratio  obtained  is  .20±.052,  which  would  seem 
to  indicate  that  there  exists  a  small  but  significant  degree  of  relation- 
ship between  mental  capacity  and  excellence  of  work  record,  as  based 
on  this  estimate. 

Summary 

Summing  up  our  results  on  this  section  we  can  see,  then,  that  the 
mental  capacity  of  these  women  plays  some  part  in  the  various  phases 
of  their  work  records  in  that: 


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510    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

(1)  There  is  a  tendency  for  the  less  bright  women  to  begin 
working  at  an  earHer  age  than  those  more  capable.  This  is  especially 
to  be  noticed  for  those  who  begin  work  before  they  have  completed 
the  compulsory  school  period,  i.e.,  before  fourteen  years,  as  contrasted 
with  those  starting  work  after  fourteen. 

(2)  There  is  a  decided  correlation  between  mental  capacity  and 
the  kind  of  work  which  these  women  have  done,  both  in  their  first 
job  and  in  the  prevailing  occupation  they  have  followed.  Nearly 
half  of  these  women  have  been  employed  at  domestic  service  and  we 
have  shown  that  they  are,  on  the  average,  unquestionably  of  lower 
grade  intellectually  as  measured  by  our  standard  than  are  the  women 
who  have  been  employed  in  occupations  other  than  housework. 

(3)  As  regards  the  average  wage  wdiich  they  have  earned,  we 
can  not  demonstrate  any  unambiguous  relationship  between  this  and 
mental  capacity,  where  the  occupation  has  been  domestic  service,  but 
we  can  show  a  clear  correlation  between  mental  capacity  and  the 
wage  earned  for  occupations  other  than  domestic  service.  It  would 
seem,  therefore,  that,  not  only  are  the  women  of  this  group  who  have 
been  employed  at  domestic  service  less  mentally  capable  than  those 
otherwise  employed,  but  their  varying  grades  of  mental  capacity 
have  not  been  met  by  a  similarly  vai-ying  earning  capacity  as  have 
those  whose  work  has  been  other  than  domestic  service. 

(4)  Finally,  there  exists  a  small  but  significant  relationship  be- 
tween mental  capacity  and  the  degree  of  excellence  indicated  by  the 
estimate  of  the  work  record,  but  the  degree  of  regularity  of  work, 
which  is  one  of  the  factors  on  which  the  estimate  of  the  work  record 
was  based,  can  not  be  shown  to  have  played  an  important  part  in  this 
relationship. 

MENTAL  CAPACITY  IN   RELATION  TO   SEX   HISTORY 

The  relation  between  the  sex  history  of  these  women  and  their 
mental  capacity  is  of  considerable  importance  in  a  group  such  as 
ours.  Table  150,  page  386.  shows  that,  out  of  our  total  of  551  cases 
on  which  we  have  information,  only  78.  or  14  per  cent,  have  not  at 
some  period  of  their  lives  been  sexually  irregular. 

(a)  Mental  Capacity  and  Age  at  First  Sex  Offense 

Following  the  order  adopted  in  Chapter  XII,  we  have  first  consid- 
ered the  relation  between  the  mental  capacity  of  these  women  and  the 
age  at  which  they  committed  their  first  sex  offense.     (See  Table  218.) 


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512     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

The  coefificient  of  correlation  (.14  zb  .060)  is  so  small  as  to  indicate 
the  presence  of  at  most  a  very  slight  degree  of  relationship.  The 
correlation  ratio  of  mental  capacity  on  age  at  first  offense  is  .20  ±  .059, 
with  a  sufficient  degree  of  regularity  in  the  line  of  means  of  test 
aggregate  to  indicate  that  this  ratio  probably  measures  fairly  the  extent 
of  the  relationship.  On  the  other  hand,  the  ratio  of  age  at  first  sex 
offense  on  test  aggregate  (.25  =h  .057)  is  rendered  ambiguous  in  sig- 
nificance because  of  the  great  irregularity  of  the  lines  of  means. 


(b)  Mental  Capacity  and  Classification  as  Sex  Offenders 

Chart  XLIV  shows  the  distribution  of  those  who  have  been  sex  of- 
fenders and  those  who  have  not  been  sex  offenders,  that  is,  who  have 
not  been  sexually  promiscuous.  It  is  evident  that  the  sex  offenders  are 
a  slightly  inferior  group.  Table  219  shows  that  so  great  a  differ- 
ence as  this  could  occur  by  chance  only  once  in  313  times.  We  are 
convinced,  therefore,  that  the  average  mental  capacity  is  a  trifle 
higher  for  those  who  have  not  been  sexually  promiscuous  than  for 
those  that  have.  As  far  as  the  variability  of  the  two  groups  is  con- 
cerned, the  sex  offenders  would  seem  to  have  a  slightly  greater  range, 
but  this  difference  can  not  be  considered  established. 


Per 

Cent 


Sex  Offenders 
Not  Se«  Offenders 


Chart  XLIV 

Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate 

Percentage  comparison  between  those  who  have  been  sex  offenders — sexually 
promiscuous — and  those  who  have  not.     English-speaking  cases  only. 


MENTAL  CAPACITY 


513 


TABLE  219 

SEX  OFFENDERS  AND  NOT  SEX  OFFENDERS 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Mental  Capacity, 

as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate,  of  Sex  Offenders  and 

Those  Not  Sex  Offenders* 

English-speaking  Cases  Only 


Sex 
Offenders 

Not  Sex 
Offenders 

Difference 

d 
(Td 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

75.28 
±.507 

79.4 
±1.43 

-4.12 

2.73 

313 

<Tm 

(T 

(Ta 

9.34 
±.32G 

8.49 
±.926 

.85 

.87 

5 

Cases 

339 

35 

*The  distinction  here  is  between  those  who  have  been  sexually  promiscuous  and  those  who  have  not. 

Out  of  a  total  of  551  cases  there  were  365  who  were  prostitutes 
at  the  time  of  conviction  or  had  been  so  at  some  period  in  their 
history.  They  comprise,  then,  66.2  per  cent  of  our  total  group. 
In  Chart  XLV  we  have  compared  the  distribution  of  the  scores  on  Test 
Aggregate  of  those  women  who  have  been  prostitutes  with  that  of  those 

Per 

Cent 


Prostitutes 
Non  Prostitutes 


Chart  XLV 

Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate 

Percentage  comparison  between  those  who  have  been  prostitutes  and  those 
who  have  not.     English-speaking  cases  only. 


514     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

who  have  not.   The  mean  of  the  non-prostitute  group  is  sensibly  higher, 
77.40   ±   .960  as  against  74.97   ±    .556,  and   Table  220  shows   this 
j  difference  to  be  almost  certainly  valid. 

The  degree  of  variability  is  slightly  smaller  for  the  prostitute 
class,  9.07  ±  .350  as  against  9.97  ±  .641,  but  Table  220  shows 
this  dift'erence  to  be  only  possibly  demonstrable,  the  chance  being  one 
in  nine  that  as  great  a  difference  would  occur  from  sampling. 

TABLE  220 

PROSTITUTES  AND  NON-PROSTITUTES 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Mental  Capacity, 
as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate,  of  Prostitutes  and  Non -Prostitutes 

English-speaking  Cases  Only 


Prostitutes 

Non 
Prostitutes 

Difference 

d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

74.97 
±.556 

77.40 
±.960 

-2.43 

2.19 

70 

Cm 

cr 

9.07 
±.350 

9.97 
+  .641 

-    .90 

1.23 

9 

(T(T 

Cases 

266 

108 

In  Table  221  we  have  attempted  to  make  a  finer  distinction  in  the 
matter  of  sex  irregularity  and  have  divided  the  group  into  (1) 
prostitutes,  which  includes  those  who  have  been  either  regularly  or 
semi-regularly  receiving  money  in  return  for  sex  relations,  (2)  those 
sexually  irregular,  which  here  includes  those  who  have  been  indis- 
criminate in  their  relations  but  have  not  made  a  practice  of  taking 
money  for  it,  and  (3)  those  who  have  never  been  sexually  immoral 
and  those  whose  delinquency  has  been  restricted  to  a  single  offense. 
With  this  threefold  distinction  we  have  plotted  the  correlation  be- 
tween mental  capacity  shown  by  Test  Aggregate  and  the  degree  of  sex 
irregularity. 

The  correlation  ratio  obtained  is  only  .14  ±:  .051,  a  figure  too 
low  to  be  very  significant.  The  means  are  seen  to  run  respectively: 
prostitutes  75,  sexually  irregular  76.4,  and  those  not  sexually  irregular 
79.4.  It  seems  clear,  then,  from  this  in  connection  with  Tables  219  and 
220  that  the  real  distinction  in  mental  capacity  comes  between  those 


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516     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

who  have  not  been  sexually  irregular  and  those  who  have,  and  that, 
in  the  further  distinction  between  professional  prostitutes  and  those 
who  have  been  promiscuous  without  being  prostitutes,  the  factor  of 
mentality  does  not  play  a  part. 

In  order  to  determine  whether  or  not  the  matter  of  mental  capacity 
had  any  relation  to  the  length  of  time  these  women  have  been  sexually 
irregular,  we  have  plotted  Table  222  which  shows  the  correlation 
between  mental  capacity  measured  by  Test  Aggregate  and  the  jium- 
ber  of  years  they  have  been  sexually  irregular.  This  includes  both 
the  years  they  have  been  prostitutes  and  the  time  they  have  been 
simply  promiscuous.  The  correlation  coefficient  obtained  is  — .13 
±  .061,  which  would  indicate  a  negative  relationship  between  the  two 
which  is,  however,  questionable  in  the  light  of  its  relatively  large 
standard  deviation.  The  correlation  ratios  of  .16  ±  .060  and  .20 
±  .059  further  indicate  a  relationship  which  is  at  most  slight.  Con- 
sideration of  the  means  shows  that  whatever  relationship  exists  is 
negative.  Our  data  on  this  point  are,  as  has  been  explained  in  Chapter 
XII,  quite  unsatisfactory  in  view  of  the  fact  that  there  are  a  goodly 
number  of  women  who  are  known  to  have  been  prostitutes  or  sexu- 
ally irregular  for  a  long  time  but  from  whom  we  have  been  unable 
to  obtain  any  statement  as  to  the  exact  number  of  years.  Nearly  50 
per  cent  of  these  are  Workhouse  cases,  "old  rounders"  who  are 
quite  uniformly  characterized  by  low  intelligence,  and  whose  records,  if 
they  were  obtainable,  would  have  undoubtedly  increased  the  negative 
correlation.  We  feel  inclined  to  believe,  therefore,  that  there  is  prob- 
ably a  valid,  though  small  association,  and  that  there  exists  a  significant 
negative  correlation  between  mental  capacity  as  shown  in  this  way  and 
the  number  of  years  sexually  irregular. 


(c)  Mental  Capacity  and  Venereal  Disease 

If,  in  considering  next  the  relation  between  mental  capacity  of 
those  who  are  infected  with  venereal  disease,  as  indicated  by  the 
Wassermann  and  Complement  Fixation  tests,  and  those  who  are  free 
from  the  same,  we  plot  the  distributions  graphically,  we  obtain  the 
curves  shown  in  Chart  XLVI.  It  is  at  once  evident  that  those  free  from 
venereal  disease  form  a  superior  group.  There  is  a  clear  difiference 
in  the  means  77.34  ±:  .879  as  against  73.96  ±  .969,  and  Table  223 
shows  this  difference  to  be  almost  certainly  valid.  The  difference  is 
very  slight  as  regards  the  degree  of  concentration  with  which  the  cases 


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518     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 


Per 

Cent 


Venereal 
Non  Venereal 


Chart  XLVI 

Mental  Capacity  as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate 

Percentage  comparison  between  those  having  venereal  disease  and  those  free 
from  venereal  disease.     English-speaking  cases  only. 

are  grouped  around  the  mean,  however,  as  shown  by  comparison  of  the 
standard  deviations.  Table  223  shows  that  so  slight  a  difference  is 
only  possibly  significant. 

TABLE  223 

PRESENCE  OR  ABSENCE  OF  VENEREAL  DISEASE 

Comparison  of  the  Means  and  Standard  Deviations  of  Mental  Capacity, 
as  Measured  by  Test  Aggregate,  of  those  Having  Venereal  Dis- 
ease and  those  Free  from  Venereal  Disease* 

English-speaking  cases  only 


Venereal 
Di.sease 

Free  from 
Venereal 
Disease 

Difference 

d 
0-d 

Chances  that  real 

difference  does 

not  exist  are  1 

in: 

Mean 

73,96 
+  .969 

77.34 

+  .879 

-3.38 

2.59 

208 

O-m 

a 

9.19 
+  .602 

8.43 
+  .  630 

.76 

.87 

5 

(Ta 

Cases 

90 

92 

*Reactions  of  4+,  3+  and  2+  to  either  the  Wassermann  or  Complement  Fixation  test  taken  as 
positive  indications  and  reactions  of  —  or  =t  as  negative  indications. 

As  earlier  stated  in  Chapter  XII,  data  for  the  diagnosis  of  ven- 
ereal disease  are  based  upon  the  findings  in  the  Wassermann  and  Com- 


MENTAL  CAPACITY  519 

plement  Fixation  tests.  For  purposes  of  the  present  comparison  4-f-. 
3+  and  2+  were  regarded  as  positive  indications  of  the  presence  of 
disease  and  —  and  ±  as  negative.  The  reports  of  1  -|-  were  omitted  as 
not  being  either  clearly  positive  or  negative.  It  will,  of  course,  be 
objected  that  we  have  not  selected  an  infallible  means  of  detecting 
venereal  disease.  We  do  not,  however,  claim  to  be  doing  anything 
other  than  comparing  the  intellectual  capacity  of  those  who,  by  the 
indications  of  the  blood  tests  cited,  are  diagnosed  as  having,  or  being 
free  from,  syphilis  or  gonorrhea. 

(d)  Mental  Capacity  and  Age  of  Entering  Prostitution 

Table  224  shows  the  relationship  existing  between  mental  capacity 
measured  by  Test  Aggregate  and  the  age  at  which  these  women 
entered  prostitution.  The  correlation  coefficient  is  .20  ±:  .069  and 
the  ratios  slightly  higher  but  afifected  by  irregularities  of  the  means. 
There  would,  therefore,  seem  to  be  a  sensible  and  significant,  though 
slight,  correlation  between  the  mental  capacity  of  prostitutes  and  the 
age  at  which  they  begin  prostituting. 

From  an  examination  of  the  scatter  table  one  notes  the  interesting 
fact  that,  if  lines  are  drawn  through  the  table  at  the  approximate 
means  of  mental  capacity  and  age  at  entering  prostitution,  thus 
dividing  the  table  into  four  quadrants,  while  the  lower  quadrants 
contain  almost  identical  numbers,  in  the  upper  quadrants  two-thirds 
as  many  cases  fall  in  the  right  hand  quadrant  as  in  the  left.  This 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  there  are  as  many  bright  women  as  dull 
women  who  enter  prostitution  early  but  there  are  a  greater  percentage 
of  bright  than  dull  women  who  enter  prostitution  late.  (The  terms 
"bright"  and  "dull,"  as  used  here,  are  purely  relative,  designating  those 
above  and  below  the  average  of  this  group,  respectively.)  ^ 

If  we  compare  next  the  number  of  years  that  the  women  have  j 
been  in  prostitution  with  mental  capacity  as  measured  by  Test  Aggre-  ' 
gate,  we  obtain  the  distribution  figured  in  Table  225.  This  shows 
a  relationship  wholly  comparable  with  that  of  the  preceding  table, 
as  indicated  both  by  correlation  coefficient  and  by  ratios,  although 
the  coefficient  is  necessarily  negative  in  this  case  to  show  the  same 
type  of  relationship.  Separating  this  sheet  into  quadrants  at  the  line 
of  the  means  as  in  the  previous  table,  we  see  that  here  the  two  upper 
quadrants  have  more  nearly  equal  percentages  but  that  there  is  a 
o-reater  percentage  in  the  right  hand  lower  quadrant  than  in  the  left. 


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522    STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

This  would  seem  to  indicate  that  while  there  are  as  many  bright 
as  dull  women  who  have  been  for  long  periods  in  prostitution,  there 
are  more  bright  than  dull  women  who  have  been  in  it  only  a  short 
time. 

Sutmnary 

To  summarize  this  section,  we  feel  that  we  can  say  regarding 
the  relations  which  have  been  found  to  exist  between  the  mental 
capacity  of  these  women  as  measured  by  Test  Aggregate  and  the 
phases  of  their  sex  history  considered : 

(1)  That  there  is  a  slight  positive  relationship  between  mental 
I  capacity  measured  by  Test  Aggregate  and  the  age  at  which  these 
;  women  committed  their  first  sex  offense. 

(2)  We  have  found  a  small,  and  perhaps  questionable,  negative 
correlation  of  — .13  ±:  .061  between  mental  capacity  and  number 
of  years  sexually  irregular.  We  are  inclined  to  believe  that  this  would 
be  increased  if  we  could  include  the  hundred-odd  cases  whom  we 
know  had  been  sexually  irregular  for  a  long  time,  but  on  whom 
we  have  been  unable  to  get  a  record  of  the  exact  length  of  time. 

(3)  Comparing  the  means  of  the  mental  capacity  of  those  women 
who  are  infected  with  venereal  diseases,  as  evidenced  by  the  reactions 
to  the  Wassermann  and  Complement  Fixation  Tests,  with  those  whose 

'  reactions  to  these  tests  were  negative,  we  found  an  appreciable  differ- 
ence in  favor  of  the  latter.  The  difference  in  the  amount  of  variability 
shown  by  the  two  groups  was  small  and  only  possibly  significant. 

(4)  When  we  compare  the  mental  capacity  of  the  women  who 
have  been   either  prostitutes   or   sexually   irregular   with   those  who 

I  have  not  been  sexually  promiscuous,  we  find  that  there  is  a  difference 
in  the  central  tendency  of  the  two  groups  in  favor  of  those  who  have 
I  not  been  sexually  irregular.     The  amount  of  scatter  about  the  mean 
'  which  the  distributions  show  is  not  noticeably  or  significantly  different. 
Making  the  division,  however,  between  prostitutes  and  non-pros- 
titutes, i.e.,  by  combining  those  who  have  been  sexually  irregular  and 
those  who  have  not   been   sexually   irregular,   and   comparing   them 
with  the  prostitutes,  we  obtain  a   sensible   difference   in  the  means 
which  is  almost  certainly  significant.     This  difference  is,  it  will  be 
noted,  not  as  great  as  that  between  the  combination  of  prostitutes 
and  those  sexually  irregular  compared  with  those  not  sexually  irregular. 
It  would  seem,  therefore,  that,  as  far  as  mental  capacity  is  concerned 
the  difference  between  those  who  have  prostituted   and  those   who 


MENTAL  CAPACITY  523 

have  simply  been  sexually  irregular  is  insignificant  and  that  it  is 
the  presence  of  those  not  sexually  irregular  in  the  comparison  be- 
tween prostitutes  and  non-prostitutes  which  gives  it  its  significance. 

A  classification  of  the  group  into  three  divisions — prostitutes,  those 
sexually  irregular  who  have  not  prostituted,  and  those  not  sexually 
irregular — shows  that  the  above  assumption  is  correct. 

(5)  There  is  a   sensible  though   small   correlation   between   the 
mental   capacity   and   the  age   at   entering   prostitution,    and   an   in- 
spection of  the  scatter  table  would  indicate  that  this  seems  to  be ' 
brought  about  by  a  lack  of  representation  of  the  stupider   women  , 
among  those  who  enter  prostitution  late  rather  than  a  concentration  , 
of  the  brighter  women  there. 

(6)  A  negative  correlation  of  —.21  d=  .069  was  found  between  \ 
mental  capacity  and  the  number  of  years  in  prostitution.     Here  an 
inspection  of  the  scatter  table  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  women 
who  stay  for  a  long  time  in  prostitution  are  about  equally  divided 
into  those  above  and  below  the  average  mentally  but  that  there  is 

a  greater  concentration  of  the  brighter  women  among  those  who 
remain  in  it  less  time. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIONS 

THE  purpose  of  this  study  has  been  to  achieve  a  more  adequate 
understanding  of  women  dehnquents.  To  some  extent  such 
an  understanding  is  furthered  by  the  mere  assembhng  of  facts  about 
the  group.  Such  information  may  at  least  help  to  remove  and  to 
prevent  certain  misconceptions  regarding  their  characteristics.  For 
a  more  basic  understanding,  however,  these  facts  must  be  brought 
into  relation  with  other  facts.  That  is,  comparisons  must  be  made 
of  one  portion  of  the  delinquent  group  with  others,  and  of  the  group  of 
delinquent  women  both  with  groups  of  men  delinquents  and  with  the 
general  population.  These  comparisons  we  have  attempted  to  carry 
through,  wherever  the  necessary  data  were  available.  We  have 
had  occasion  constantly  throughout  this  study  to  comment  on  the 
dearth  of  such  information  with  reference  to  the  general  population. 
This  lack  is  responsible,  more  than  any  other  one  thing,  for  a  general 
want  of  conclusiveness  about  our  findings. 

In  the  present  brief  statement  it  is  not  our  intention  to  indicate 
the  results  of  our  study  in  any  detail.  Such  material  has  been  given 
in  summarized  form,  in  the  various  chapters  concerned.  Here, 
we  are  interested  only  in  showing  major  trends  and  the  more  general 
indications  of  our  findings.  Any  discussion  of  the  more  detailed 
relationships  and  distinctions  between  different  portions  of  the  de- 
linquent group  would  involve  unnecessary  duplication.  For  such 
information  the  reader  is,  therefore,  referred  to  the  earlier  state- 
ments. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  the  women  delinquents  regarding 
whom  we  offer  information  are  those  convicted  of  legal  offenses, 
through  due  process  of  law :  and  that  they  do  not  include  those 
closely  related  cases  who  offend  in  essentially  the  same  ways  but 
escape  arrest  and  conviction. 

It  may  be  desirable,  also,  to  remind  the  reader  that  we  make  no 
claim  to    comprehensiveness    in   our    survey   of    the    factors    of    im- 

524 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIONS  525 

portance  in  connection  with  delinquency.  Certain  very  obvious  ones 
have  been  omitted, — some  because  we  did  not  find  it  practicable  to 
include  them  in  this  investigation,  others  because  of  difficulty  in 
reducing  our  observations  to  definite  objective  form,  and  still  others 
because  they  appeared  so  general  as  to  elude  exact  observation,  re- 
quiring perhaps  the  perspective  of  time  or  of  the  knowledge  of  ^ 
many  localities  for  even  an  attempt  at  precise  formulation.  Note- 
worthy omissions  to  be  accounted  for  from  these  various  points  of 
view  are  the  following:  information  regarding  the  physical  condition 
of  the  women  of  our  group ;  data  regarding  their  emotional  organiza- 
tion and  the  more  general  characteristics  of  the  personality  as  a 
whole ;  data  regarding  the  general  environmental  background,  in- 
cluding especially  the  quality  and  the  number  of  the  recreational 
opportunities ;  facts  about  the  public  opinion  of  the  community  with 
reference  to  moral  standards,  particularly  as  these  concern  sex  mat- 
ters; these  and  other  factors  perhaps  equal  in  importance.  We 
shall  not  be  drawn  aside  into  a  discussion  of  the  significance  of 
these    factors,   important   though   we   believe   them   to   be,   since   we 

lack  the  factual  material  to  support  any  views  which  we  might  offer^ ,  j^ 

Turning  to  the  positive  aspects  of  our  investigation,  we  note  \ 
two  lines  of  influence  which  seem  to  have  a  bearing  on  the  problem 
of  delinquency  among  women,  namely:  (1)  poor  economic- back- 
ground with  few  advantages  or  opportunities,  including  such  conditions 
as  poor  homes,  very  limited  school  opportunity,  early  age  at  start- 
ing work  and  meager  industrial  training;  and  (2)  a  somewhat  mr^ 
ferior  mentality. 

>i»n<»^*'  A^  survey  of  the  early  home  conditions  in  which  these  women  '^  tA^^*^■f(^  ^^^ 
grew  up  shows/that  a  large  percentage  came  from  the  poorest  homes 
included  in  our  estimate  of  home  conditions,  and  that  less  than 
ten  per  cent  came  from  homes  considered  better  than  mediocre  in 
respect  to  economic  status,  moral  standards  and  parental  super- 
vision. Though  there  is  no  possibility  of  determining  what  percentage 
of  the  homes  of  non-delinquents  would  fall  in  the  lower  grouping, 
we  are  able  to  show  within  the  delinquent  group  that  there  is  a 
tendency  for  those  brought  up  in  the  poorer  homes  to  enter  prostitu- 
tion when  younger,  and  to  be  convicted  at  an  earlier  age,  than  those 
who  were  brought  up  in  better  homes. 

C  With  reference  tQ-  €ducational__background  we  find,  again,  that, 
without  reliable  standards  for  the  general  population,  we  have  no 
way  of  knowing  how  far  the  delinquent  group  lags  behind  the  gen- 


526     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

eral  population  in  this  respect.  We  have  found,  however,  that  the 
,  delinquent  group  falls  decidedly  behind  the  requirements  of  present 
^  opinion  regarding  the  minimum  amount  of  schooling  which  should 
V  be  accepted  as  furnishing  the  rudiments  of  preparation  for  meeting 
the  demands  of  adult  life.  This  is  especially  true  as  regards  school 
attainment.  The  record  for  the  total  group,  with  regard  to  school 
grade  completed,  shows  that  on  the  average  they  have  finished  less 
than  the  fifth  grade.  We  saw  reason  for  believing  that  this  was 
to  some  extent  a  secondary  effect  of  the  somewhat  inferior  intelligence 
of  the  group.  We  were  not  able  to  discover  more  than  very  slight 
relationships  between  the  educational  factors  and  the  various  aspects 
of  the  criminal  career. 
^^  .^  Referring  to  the_work_j:iec0rds  of  the  delinquent  group,  we  note 
many  indications  of  general  industrial  inefficiency.  Not  only  is  the 
average  prevailing  wage  low,  but  the  records  show  much  irregularity 
of  work,  and  a  massing  in  the  occupations  which  demand  least  in 
the  way  of  general  educational  background  or  special  industrial 
training.  That  the  situation  in  these  respects  is  any  worse  than 
among  women  wage  earners  as  a  whole  it  is  impossible  to  say.  It 
is  necessary  to  remember  that  the  community  has  been  very  slow 
to  apply  the  same  standards  of  industrial  efficiency  and  remuneration 
to  women  that  it  has  applied  to  men,  and  that  inability  to  earn  a 
decent  living  for  herself  and  family  is  not  considered  an  indication 
of  incompetency  in  a  woman  to  the  same  degree  as  in  a  man.  Further, 
the  occupations  which  demand  least  in  the  way  of  background  and 
special  training — domestic  service  and  factory  work — are  the  occu- 
pations which  include  the  largest  numbers  of  women  wage-earners 
in  general.—  The  available  data  tended  to  show,  however,  that  the 
proportions  in  these  occupations  were  somewhat  overweighted  for  the 
delinquent  group  as  compared  with  the  whole  body  of  working 
women.  —  \A 

It  seems  worthy  of  note  that  the  women  of  this  group,  taken  as 
a  whole,  "have  evidently  had  demands  upon  them,  during  at  least  cer- 
tain periods  in  their  lives,  to  be  financially  productive.  Only  about 
3  per  cent  of  the  total  group  have  never  been  gainfully  employed. 
It  appears,  further,  that  over  half  of  the  group  were  idle,  that  is, 
not  engaged  in  a  legitimate  occupation,  at  the  time  of  the  present 
conviction.  It  does  not  follow,  however,  that  they  were  not  earning 
at  this  time,  for  it  must  be  remembered  that  in  general  the  offenses 
committed  by   this   group   bring  in   remuneration,   often  on   a   scale 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIONS  527 

decidedly  above  that  which  the  same  individuals  can  reach  in  legitimate 
occupations.  If,  then,  we  urge  the  importance  of  economic  factors  in 
relation  to  delinquency  among  women,  it  is  not  because  we  contend 
either  that  the  delinquent  women,  as  a  whole,  could  not  earn  a  living 
wage  in  some  occupation,  or  that  the  wages  which  they  do  earn  are 
conspicuously  lower  than  those  of  working  women  who  have  not 
become  delinquent.  It  is  rather,  in  the  first  place,  because  some 
degree  of  economic  necessity  is  operative  in  the  case  of  this  group, 
and,  in  the  second  place,  because  the  offenses  of  most  frequent  occur- 
rence offer  financial  attractions  sufficiently  great  so  that  they  may 
at  least  compete  with  the  legitimate  occupations  as  a  source  of  in- 
come. If  inhibitions  of  one  sort  or  another  are  not  sufficient  to 
deter  a  woman,  it  may  well  be  that  the  greater  probable  lucrativeness 
of  prostitution,  shop-lifting,  or  other  forms  of  delinquency  may  prove 
the  adequate  explanation  for  her  entrance  upon  this  career  in  at 
least  a  fair  proportion  of  the  cases.  -.  , 

In  our  reference  to  inferior  mentality  we  have  in  mind  espe-\  ^&\JU 
cially  the  general  intelligence  of  the  group.  Had  we  adequate  data,\  C^^J^ 
in  sufficiently  exact  form,  we  should  make  this  category  more  com- 
prehensive and  include  certain  characteristics  of  temperament  and 
emotional  organization,  which  we  believe  to  be  quite  as  important 
as  the  factor  of  intelligence  but  which  are  far  more  difficult  of 
measurement.^  With  regard  to  intelligence,  all  indications  are  that 
the  group  of  delinquent  women  is  somewhat  inferior  to  the  general 
population,  though  the  difference  is  slight  and  the  overlapping  large. 
This  statement  holds,  though  in  varying  degrees,  whether  we  consider 
the  separate  sub-groups,  or  the  composite  group.  It  should  be  noted, 
however,  that  our  data  have  indicated  a  less  extreme  distinction,  with 
respect  to  intelligence,  between  the  delinquent  and  the  non-delinquent 
groups  than  that  urged  by  many  recent  investigators,  notably  Goring. 
The  most  that  we  are  prepared  to  say  is  that,  other  things  being 
equal,  there  is  apparently  a  greater  presumption  in  favor  of  de- 
linquency in  a  group  of  women  who  are  below  the  average  in  in- 
telligence than  in  a  group  above  the  average.  In  view  of  this  apparent 
overweighting  of  the  delinquent  group  in  the  direction  of  mental 
inferiority  it  is  somewhat  surprising  to  find  how  slight  are  the  in- 
dications of  relationship  between  intelligence  and  the  various  aspects 
of  the  criminal  career,  such  as  degree  of  recidivism,  age  at  first  con- 
viction, nature  of  offense,  etc.  Apparently  low  intelligence  has  more 
weight  in  swinging  the  balance  so  that  the  woman  will  appear  within 


528     STUDY  OF  WOMEN  DELINQUENTS  IN  NEW  YORK 

the  delinquent  group  than  in  determining  what  type  of  delinquent  she 
will  be  or  how  serious  an  offender,  v  . 

The  factors  mentioned  above  have  impressed  themselves  upon  us 
as  important  general  influences  associated  with  delinquency.  Never- 
theless, when  we  turn  to  any  specific  comparison,  involving  these 
factors  in  relation  to  some  aspect  of  delinquency,  we  are  even  more 
impressed  by  the  smallness  of  the  relationships  than  by  the  fact  of 
their  existence.  Even  when  we  compare  the  delinquent  group  with 
the  general  population  we  find  relatively  slight  distinctions  and  much 
overlapping.  This  fact  may  be  exaggerated,  to  some  degree,  by  the 
inadequacy  of  our  information  regarding  the  general  population,  as 
well  as  by  the  small  numbers  in  the  delinquent  group.  The  evidence 
available  indicates  very  strongly,  however,  that  even  with  fuller 
data  we  should  still  be  dealing  with  small  differences.  This  sug- 
gests, further,  that  any  search  ,for  a  well-defined  type  of  individual, 
appearing  as  the  delinquent  zvoman,  will  probably  be  fruitless.  Ap- 
parently the  concept  of  such  a  type  can  not  be  saved  even  by  ex- 
panding it  beyond  Lombroso's  anthropological  criminal  type  and 
pruning  off  certain  of  the  absurdities  incorporated  in  his  idea.  Within 
all  groups  and  all  classes  there  are  doubtless  individuals  whose 
adjustment  to  the  demands  of  society  is  more  or  less  precarious. 
Whether  or  not  they  become  delinquent  will  depend,  not  so  much 
upon  the  appearance  of  a  single  decisive  factor,  as  upon  the  massing 
of  factors  in  such  a  way  as  to  disturb  a  more  or  less  unstable  initial 
adjustment.  That  certain  factors,  notably  poor  economic  conditions, 
variously  operative,  and  inferior  intelligence,  are  particularly  likely 
so  to  disturb  the  balance  is  the  main  point  which  we  should  urge  in 
emphasizing  these  conditions. 

In  further  support  of  this  point  of  view  we  would  call  attention 
to  our  findings  regarding  inter-comparisons  within  .the  group  of  de- 
linquents. Reference  to  the  detailed  discussions  of  the  foregoing 
chapters  makes  it  clear  that  even  those  factors  which  we  consider 
most  important  in  their  bearing  on  delinquency  have,  apparently,  not 
been  very  effective  in  determining  the  place  of  an  individual  within 
the  delinquent  group  with  respect  to  the  seriousness  or  the  frequency 
of  offenses  or  other  similar  categories.  It  is  interesting  to  note, 
for  example,  with  reference  to  intelligence,  that  there  is  more  differ- 
ence between  the  colored  and  the  white  of  our  group,  or  between 
those  who  have  been  in  domestic  service  and  those  wlio  have  not, 
than  between  recidivists  and  first  offenders,  or  between    felons   and 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIONS  529 

misdemeanants,  or  between  offenders  against  chastity  and  offenders 
against  property.  Instances  could  be  multiplied  to  show  that  a  dichot- 
omy of  the  delinquent  group,  based  on  factors  not  intrinsic  to  the 
problem  of  delinquency,  frequently  yields  more  striking  distinctions 
than  does  one  based  on  differences  which  are  fundamental  from  point 
of  view  of  delinquency. 

On  the  basis  of  our  findings  we  can  not  agree  with  Goring  in  the 
importance  that  he  attaches  to  the  constitutional  factors  in  contrast 
with  the  environmental  factors,  as  determinants  of  crime.  He  states, 
for  example  •}  "While  with  many  of  the  former,  high  degrees  of 
association  have  been  revealed,  with  practically  none  of  the  latter 
do  we  discover  any  definite  degree  of  relationship."  And  again: 
"Crime  is  only  to  a  trifling  extent  (if  to  any)  the  product  of  social 
inequalities,  of  adverse  environment,  or  of  other  manifestations  of 
what  may  comprehensively  be  termed  the  force  of  circumstances." 
To  the  extent  of  insisting  upon  the  slightness  of  observable  rela- 
tionships we  are  in  agreement  with  Goring.  We  disagree,  however, 
in  the  preeminence  attached  to  such  a  constitutional  factor  as  defective 
intelligence  in  contrast  with  economic  factors.  The  relationships 
which  we  have  observed  have  been,  if  anything,  more  slight  in  case 
of  the  measures  of  intelligence  than  in  that  of  the  indices  of  social 
and  economic  factors.  Fundamental  differences  between  Goring's 
group  and  ours  may  be  offered  in  partial  explanation  of  the  dis- 
agreement. We  would  suggest,  as  further  possible  explanations  of  his 
findings,  on  the  one  hand,  the  fact  that  he  dealt  only  with  estimates 
of  intelligence,  which  are  markedly  subject  to  the  influence  of  the 
personal  equation,  and  on  the  other  hand,  the  fact  that  his  data 
regarding  environmental  factors  are  less  complete  and  well  controlled 
than  are  his  other  data.  It  is  at  least  possible  that  more  thorough- 
going investigation  into  the  social  and  economic  factors  would  have 
disclosed  quite  as  much  reason  for  ascribing  significance  to  the 
environmental  factors  as  to  the  constitutional,  with  no  one  factor  of 
either  sort  appearing  as  extreme  in  importance.  Our  own  findings 
would  suggest  such  an  outcome. 

*  Op.  cit.,  p.  371. 


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INDEX 


Abbott,   Edith,  209 

Abbott,   Grace,   195 

Age,  distinction  between  "legal"  and 
"actual,"  of  delinquents,  13  note;  in 
relation  to  number  of  convictions, 
105  ff. ;  at  first  conviction,  102  fif., 
128  fif.,  138  f.,  196  ff.,  227  f.,  261  ff., 
288  f.,  309  ff.,  447  f . ;  of  delinquent 
women  by  institutional  groups  and 
by  total,  147  ff. ;  definition  of  unit 
for  measuring,  148;  of  delinquent 
women  at  first  marriage,  162 ;  of 
first  husband  at  marriage,  162  f. ; 
of  delinquent  women  classified  by 
nativity  and  color,  174  ff. ;  of  parents 
at  birth  of  subject,  231  ff. ;  of  sub- 
ject at  death  of  parents,  232  ff. ;  at 
leaving  school,  250,  256  ff.,  494  ff. ; 
at  starting  work,  306  ff.,  498  f . ;  in 
relation  to  wage,  353  f . ;  at  first  sex 
offense,  380  ff.,  510  ff.;  at  entering 
prostitution,  391   ff.,  519  f. 

Albion,  Western  House  of  Refuge  at, 
15 ;  mental  capacity  of,  and  Bedford 
groups  compared,  447  f.,  458. 

Mcohol,  use  of,  147,  153  ff. ;  mental 
capacity  and  use  of,  485  ff. 

Akoholic  group.  See  Intoxication 
group   (Workhouse). 

Aliens.     See  Foreign  born. 

Aschaffcnburg,  G.,  245,  413  note. 

Auburn  prison,  study  of  men  inmates 
of,  by  Heacox,  7 ;  comparison  of 
mental  capacity  of  men  inmates  of, 
and  women  inmates  of,  450  ff.,  458. 
See  also  State  Prison  for  Women 
at  Auburn,  N.  Y. 

Ayres,  L.  P.,  46,  259  ff. 

Ayres  handwriting  scale,  46,  52,  291, 
294,   297   f.,  299. 


Bedford  Hills,  State  Reformatory  for 
Women  at,  passim.  See  especially 
8.  10.  15  ff..  39  ff.,  54  ff..  63,  70,  86 
ff.,  107  ff.,   110,   112   ff.,   121   ff.,   128 


ff.,  135  ff.,  139  ff.,  143,  148  ff.,  152  f., 
157  ff.,  169  ff.,  208  ff.,  230  ff.,  253, 
254  ff.,  258  f.,  264  ff.,  271,  273,  275, 
291  ff.,  307,  313  ff.,  330  f.,  335  ff., 
363,  368  f.,  381  f.,  384  ff.,  400,  408  f., 
421  ff.,  429  ff..  437  f.,  440  ff.,  447  ff. 

Blakeman's  criterion,  35. 

Bogardus,  E.  S.,  45. 

Bonscr,  F.  G.,  45. 

Breckinridge,  S.  P.,  209. 

Bridges,  J.   IV.,  43,   note. 

British  Royal  Commission  for  the 
Care  and  Control  of  the  Feeble- 
minded, 414 

Buckingham,  B.  R.,  45. 

Buckingham  spelling  scale,  45,  52,  291, 
294,  296. 


Case  history  method,  in  comparison 
with  mass  methods,   11   ff. 

Catholics.     See   Religion. 

Central  tendency,  defined,  32. 

Charwomen,  312  ff. 

Chastity,  offenses  against,  119  f.,  131 
ff.,  177  ff.,  460  ff.,  472  ff.,  478.  See  also 
Prostitution,  Sex  irregularities,  New 
York  City  Police  Department  Class- 
ification   of    Offenses,    Offense. 

Chicago  House  of  Correction,  com- 
parison of  mental  capacity  of,  in- 
mates with  that  of  Bedford  women, 
449,  458. 

Child  Labor  Law,  provisions  of,  306. 

Cincinnati  Bureau  of  Vocational  Guid- 
ance, 415,  425  ff. 

Civil  condition,  of  delinquent  women, 
161  f. 

Clerical  work,  312  ff. 

Color,  in  relation  to  delinquency,  167 
ff. ;  of  parents,  230 ;  in  relation  to 
educational  factors,  265,  268,  275  ff., 
290  ff. ;  in  relation  to  kind  of  work, 
324  f . ;  in  relation  to  sex  offenses, 
382  f.,  388  f.,  393  ff.;  in  relation  to 
mental  capacity,  480,  482  ff. 

Commitments,  to  hospitals  for  insane, 
159  f. 


535 


536 


INDEX 


Compulsory  education  law,  257. 

Complement  fixation  test,  522. 

Contemporary  group    (Bedford),  17. 

Contingency  coefficient,  defined,  33.  See 
Relationships. 

Conviction,  age  at  first,  102  ff.,  128  ff., 
138  f.,  196  ff.,  227  f.,  261  ff.,  288  f., 
309  ff.,  477;  defined,  103;  kind  of 
work  at  time  of  first,  317;  kind  of 
work  at  time  of  present,  318;  wage 
at  time  of  first,  338;  wage  at  time 
of  present,  339  f. 

Convictions,  number  of  previous.  102 
ff.,  105  ff.,  123,  132,  156  f.,  182  ff., 
191  ff.,  228  f.,  269  f.,  286  ff.,  351,  355 
ff.,  396  f.,  464  ff.  See  also  Recidiv- 
ists, First  Offenders,  Offense. 

Convicts,  comparison  of  women  de- 
linquents with  English  male,  129  ff. 
See  also  Criminals,  Delinquents, 
Felons. 

Conxngton,  Mary,  85,  322  f.,  326,  361, 
377  f. 

Correlation  coefficient,  defined,  33.  See 
Relationships. 

Correlation  ratio,  defined,  33.  See 
Relationships. 

Counties,  in  which  delinquent  women 
were  convicted.  86. 

Courtis,  S.  A.,  45,  51. 

Courtis  arithmetic  tests,  45,  51,  291, 
298,  300  f. 

Courts,  in  which  convictions  were 
made,  classified,  87. 

Criminality,  relation  of  education  to, 
245;  attitude  of  the  Italian  School 
and  Socialists  toward,  305.  See  also 
Delinquency. 

Criminals,  importance  of  understand- 
ing of,  3  ff. ;  defined,  13.  See  also 
Convicts,  Delinquents,  Felons,  Of- 
fenders. 

Crime,  importance  of  consideration  of 
criminal  as  well  as  of,  3  ff.  See 
also   Offense. 


D 


Davenport,   Charles  B.,  76,  241. 

Davis,  Katharine  B.,  16,  160,  235,  241, 
243,  324,  400  f. 

Delinquency,  nature  of,  84  ff. ;  extent 
o'  102  ff.,  nativity  and  color  in  re- 
lation to,  167  ff.,  relations  of  early 
home  conditions  to,  205  ff.,  relation 
of  facts  of  family  history  to,  228  ff. ; 
relation  of  education  to,  245  ff. ;  sex 
irregularities  and,  380  ff. ;  mental  ca- 


paciti'  in  relation  to,  413  ff.  See 
also  Offense,  Convictions,  Crimin- 
ality. 

Delinquents,  passim.  See  especially  ■' 
comparison  of  women,  with  general 
population,  5  ff.,  171  ff.,  259  ff.,  288, 
290_  ff.,  320  ff.,  358  ff.,  413  ff. ;  com- 
parison of  women,  with  men,  7  ff., 
100  ff.,  127,129  ff.,  159,  449  ff.;  use 
of  term,  in  preference  to  term 
"criminals,"  13 ;  groups  of,  studied 
in  present  investigation,  13  ff. ;  class- 
ification of  offenses  of,  84  ff. ;  juve- 
nile, 140  ff.,  200  ff.,  477  f.  See  also 
Convicts,  Criminals,  Felons,  Offend- 
ers, Misdemeanants. 

Domestic  Service,  percentages  of 
women  delinquents  employed  in,  311 
ff. ;  comparison  of  delinquents  with 
general  population  with  reference  to 
percentages  employed  in,  322  ff. ; 
comparison  of  mentality  of  delin- 
quents employed  in,  with  that  of  de- 
linquents in  other  occupations, 
503  f. 

Drugs,  addiction  to,  147,  153,  157  ff.; 
addiction  to,  in  relation  to  mental 
capacity,  485  f. 


Economic  efficiency,  relation  of,  to 
delinquency,  304  ff.,  526  f.  See  also 
Wage,   Work. 

Education,  relation,  of,  to  crime,  245 
ff.     Sec  also  School. 

Educational  attainment,  indices  of,  250 
ff. ;  relation  of  mental  capacity  to, 
493  ff.  See  also  Educational  tests. 
Grade   finished,   School. 

Educational  opportunity,  indices  of, 
250  f . ;  relation  of  mental  capacity 
to,  493  ff.    See  also  School. 

Educational  tests,  list  of,  45  f.,  51  f. ; 
results  of,  292  ff. 

Ellis,  Havclock,  413,  note. 

Elmira.  New  York  State  Reformatory 
at,_  100  ff. 

English-speaking,  necessitj-  of  restrict- 
ing groups  to,  cases  for  majority  of 
mental  tests,  58  f.,  416;  meaning  of 
term,  as  used  in  present  study,  58  f. ; 
comparison  of  mental  capacity  of, 
cases  with  that  of  non-English- 
speaking  cases,  484  f. 

Examination,  methods  of  psycholog- 
ical, of  delinquent  groups,  36  ff.  See 
also  Tests. 


INDEX 


537 


Factory  work,  311   ff. 

Family,  relation  of,  status  to  delin- 
quency, 205  ff.,  228  ff. ;  size  of,  in 
relation  to  delinquency,  235  f.  See 
also    Home. 

F'eeble-mindedness,  relation  of  delin- 
quenc}'  to,  413  ff.  See  also  Mental 
capacity. 

Felonies,  most  criminological  studies 
concerned  with  men  convicted  of,  7 
f . ;  institutions  receiving  commit- 
ments for,  15,  17,  20 ;  distinction  be- 
tween, and  misdemeanors,  89 ;  per- 
centages convicted  of,  by  institu- 
tions, 97  ff. ;  percentages  convicted 
of,  on  first  offense,  136  ff. ;  percent- 
ages convicted  of,  by  nativity  groups, 
180  f.,  200.    Sty  also  Felons,  Offense. 

Felons,  comparison  of  male,  and  fe- 
male, 100  ff.,  127,  129  ff.,  159,  450_ff.; 
number  of  previous  convictions 
among,  116  ff.,  185  ff. ;  age  at  first 
conviction  among,  131 ;  recidivists 
and  first  offenders  among,  126  f . ; 
comparison  of  mental  capacity  of 
misdemeanants  and,  463,  474.  See 
also  Convicts,  Criminals,  Delin- 
quents,  Felonies,  Offenders. 

Fernald,  Grace  M.,  44,  416. 

Finger-print  records,  71  f. 

First  offenders,  percentages  of  recid- 
ivists_  and,  126  f.,  188  ff. ;  mental 
capacity    of    recidivists    and,   468    ff. 

Fischer,  Charlotte  R.,  42  f. 

Foreign  born,  comparison  of  percent- 
ages of,  among  delinquents  and  in 
general  population,  167  f.,  171  ff.  See 
also  Nativity. 

Frans,  S.^  I.,  AA,  50,  57 

Frye,  Elizabeth,  A  note. 


Gilliland,  A.  R.,  456. 

Ghicck,  Bernard,  7,  88  f.,  191  note,  243, 
325,  378. 

Goddard,  H.  H.,  A3  note,  45  note,  413 
note,  449. 

Gonorrhea.     See   Venereal   disease. 

Goring,  Charles.  7,  12,  36  f.,  104  f., 
130  f.,  236,  244,  247  ff.,  413  f.,  466, 
468,  472,  527,  529. 

Grade  finished,  as  index  of  educational 
attainment,  251,  493  ff. ;  comparison 
of  verified  and  unverified  data  re- 
garding, 253  f . ;  data  on,  by  institu- 


tions and  by  nativity  and  color 
groups,  270  ff. ;  relation  of,  to  age, 
275  ff. ;  relation  of,  to  age  at  leaving 
school,  278  ff. ;  relation  of,  to  years 
in  school,  280  ff. ;  relation  of  nature 
of  present  offense  to,  284  ff. ;  rela- 
tion of  number  of  previous  convic- 
tions to,  286  ft". ;  relation  of  age  at 
first  conviction  to,  288;  relation  of 
occupational  factors  to,  326  ff.,  332 
ff.,  348,  350  ff.,  373,  375 ;  relation  of 
age  at  entering  prostitution  to,  397 
f . ;  relation  of  mental  capacity  to, 
494  ff. 

Groups,  descriptive  account  of  delin- 
quent, 15  ff. ;  significance  of  classi- 
fication by  institutional,  29  f . ;  statis- 
tical methods  of  describing  and  com- 
paring, 32  ff. 

Guibord,  Alberta  S.  B.,  159. 

H 

Habits,  153  ff.  See  also  Alcohol, 
Drugs,    Tobacco. 

Haines,  Thomas  H.,  416,  455. 

Hardivick,  R.,  A3  note. 

Heacox,  Frank,  7,  18  note,  55,  127 
note,   159. 

Hebrews.    See  Religion. 

Healy,  JVilliam,  AA,  AA  note,  51,  140 
ff.,  416. 

Hereditary  factors,  in  relation  to  de- 
linquency, 240  ff. ;  in  relation  to 
mental  capacity,  491  ff. 

Home,  relation  of  early,  conditions  to 
delinquency,  205  ff. ;  methods  of  es- 
timating, conditions,  205  ff. ;  estimate 
of  economic  status  in  the,  207  ff. ; 
estimate  of  moral  standards  in  the, 
210  ff. ;  estimate  of  parental  super- 
vision in  the,  212  f. ;  total  estimate 
of  the,  214  ff. ;  cases  representing 
different  classes  of,  conditions,  219 
ff. ;  relation  between,  conditions  and 
age  at  first  conviction,  227  f . ;  rela- 
tion between,  conditions  and  num- 
ber of  convictions,  228  f. ;  relation  of 
mental  capacity  to  early,  conditions, 
489  ff. 

Hotel  work,  312  ff. 


Illiteracy,  amount  cf,  in  relation  to 
extent  of  criminality,  246  f. ;  extent 
of,  among  delinquent  women  com- 
pared with  figures  for  general  popu- 
lation, 288  ff. 


538 


INDEX 


Immigrants.    See  Foreign  born. 

Immigration  Act  of  February  20,  1907, 
quoted,   173  f. 

Intelligence,  527  f.  See  also  Mental 
capacity. 

Intoxication,  sentences  given  cases 
convicted  of,  22;  difficulty  in  study 
of  cases  committed  to  Workhouse 
for,  23  f . ;  omission  from  general 
Workhouse  group  of  individuals 
committed  for,  24  f.  See  also 
Alcohol. 

Intoxication  group  (Workhouse),  de- 
scribed, 24;  data  regarding,  154  ff. ; 
included  in  group  of  those  "exces- 
sively alcoholic"  for  measurement  of 
mental   capacity,  486  fif. 

Investigation,  methods  of  social,  em- 
ployed in  present  study,  60  ff. ;  at- 
titude of  different  delinquent  groups 
toward,  of  record,  63  ff. 

Inwood  House,  15;  account  of,  group, 
18  fif.    See  also  Magdalen  Home. 


Judgments  of  intelligence,  as  criterion 
of  reliability  of  tests,  52  ff. ;  Pearson 
scale  for,  S3;  relation  of  test  results 
to,  55  ff. 

Juvenile  delinquents,  number  of  women 
of  present  group  having  record  of 
commitment  as,  140  fif.;  contention 
that  majority  of  criminals  begin 
careers  as,  141 ;  summary  of  facts 
regarding  women  who  have  been, 
143  f . ;  smaller  proportions  of, 
among  foreign  born  of  delinquent 
group  than  among  native  born,  196; 
study  of  home  conditions  of,  in 
Chicago,  209  f. 


K 


Kelly,  T.  L.,  416. 

Kent,  G.  H.,  44. 

Knecland,  George  J.,  16  note,  160  note, 

235. 
Knox,  H.  A.,  44,  57. 
Kohs,  Samuel  C,  449,  458. 


Laboratory  of  Social  Hygiene,  genesis 

of,  4. 
Language     difficulty,      factor     of,     as 

affecting  application  of  mental  tests, 

57  ff.,  416. 


Laiick,  W.  Jeff,  359  note. 
Lombroso,   Cacsare,   3,    12,   36,    141    f., 
246  f.,  304. 


M 


Magdalen  Home,  passim.  See  espe- 
ciallv  8,  15,  18  fif.,  55,  63,  86  fif.,  107 
fif.,  110,  112  fif.,  121  ff.,  128  fif.,  135  fif., 
139  ff.,  143,  148  ff.,  152  f.,  157  fif., 
169  fif.,  208  fif.,  230  fif.,  253,  255  fif., 
258  f.,  264  fif.,  271,  273,  291  fif.,  307, 
313  fif.,  324,  330  f.,  335  fif.,  363,  368  f., 
381  f.,  384  fif.,  408,  421  fif.,  424  f.,  429 
fif.,  437  f.,  440  fif. 

]\Iarriage,  age  at  first,  162;  age  of  first 
husband  at,  162  f. 

Marx,  Karl.  304. 

Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics, 
359  note. 

Men,  comparison  of  number  of,  with 
number  of  women  committed  to 
state  prisons  in  New  York,  7  ff.,  17 ; 
comparison  of  women  delinquents 
with,  delinquents,  100  ff.,  127,  129  fif., 
159,  449  fif. 

Mentaces,  use  of  term  by  Pearson,  54. 

Alental  capacity,  methods  of  measur- 
ing, 36  ff. ;  judgments  of,  by  Pearson 
scale,  52  fif. ;  selection  of  tests  for 
measuring,  55  fif. ;  "Test  Aggregate" 
best  single  measure  of,  available  for 
present  group,  58;  relation  of,  to 
educational  factors,  250  ff.,  282  f., 
493  fif. ;  of  delinquent  women  in  com- 
parison with  that  of  general  popula- 
tion, 413  fif.,  data  on,  of  draft  group 
in  armv,  416  fif.;  as  measured  by 
Stanford-Binet  Scale,  416  fif.,  447  fif., 
452  f.,  483  f.,  496;  as  measured  by 
Yerkes-Bridges  Point  Scale,  424  fif., 
450  fif.,  455  ff.,  482  f . ;  of  non-delin- 
quent girls  examined  at  Cincinnati 
Bureau  of  Vocational  Guidance,  425 
fif. ;  inter-comparison  of  delinquent 
groups  with  respect  to,  435  fif. ;  as 
measured  by  "Test  Aggregate,"  437 
fif.,  460  fif.,  485  ff.;  is  measured  Isy 
Binet-Simon  Scale  (Goddard  revis- 
ion), 449  f. ;  relation  of,  to  nature  of 
offense,  460  fif.,  472  fif. ;  relation  of, 
to  extent  of  criminal  record,  464  fif. ; 
relation  of,  to  age  at  first  conviction, 
470  f .,  477  f . ;  relation  of,  to  nature 
of  first  sentence,  474  fif. ;  relation  of, 
to  age,  480  f . ;  of  women  delinquents 
classified  as  to  color,  480,  482  ff. ;  of 
women  delinquents  classified  as  Eng- 
lish-speaking and  non-English-speak- 


INDEX 


539 


ing,  484  f . ;  as  measured  by  Per- 
formance Tests,  484  f.;  relation  of, 
to  use  of  drugs  and  alcohol,  485  ff. ; 
relation  of,  to  home  conditions  and 
hereditary  factors,  489  ff. ;  relation 
of,  to  work  record,  498  ff. ;  relation 
of,  to  sex  history,  510  ff. ;  indi- 
cation of  significance  to  be  attached 
to,  in  relation  to  delinquency,  525, 
527  ff. 

Mentality.     See  Mental   capacity. 

Misdemeanants,  comparison  of  women, 
with  men,  456  f. ;  number  of  previ- 
ous convictions  among,  116  ff.,  185 
ff. ;  recidivists  and  first  offenders 
among,  126  f . ;  age  at  first  convic- 
tion among,  131 ;  comparison  of  men- 
tal capacity  of  felons  and,  463,  474. 
See  also  Criminals,  Delinquents, 
^Misdemeanors,  Offenders. 

Misdemeanors,  groups  of  present  study 
receiving  commitments  for,  15  f.,  18 
f.,  20,  21,  25 ;  distinction  between 
felonies  and,  89;  percentages  con- 
victed of,  by  institutions,  97  ff. ;  per- 
centages convicted  of,  on  first  of- 
fense, 136  ff. ;  percentages  convicted 
of,  by  nativity  groups,  180  f.,  200. 
See  also  Misdemeanants,  Offense. 


N 


Nativity,  in  relation  to  delinquency, 
167  ff. ;  of  parents,  228  ff. ;  in  rela- 
tion to  educational  factors,  265,  268, 
275  ff.,  290  ff. ;  in  relation  to  kind  of 
work,  324  f . ;  in  relation  to  sex 
offenses,  382  f.,  388  f.._393  ff. ;  in 
relation  to  mental  capacity,  480,  484 
f.  See  also  English-speaking,  For- 
eign born,  Non-English-speaking. 

Negroes.    See  Color, 

New  Jersey  Bureau  of  Statistics,  359 
note. 

New  York  City,  interpretation  of  term 
"disorderly  conduct"  in,  85;  majority 
of  present  group  convicted  through 
courts  of,  86,  305  ;  comparison  of  de- 
linquent women  with  general  female 
population  of,  with  respect  to  nativ- 
ity and  color,  171  ff. ;  lack  of  school 
record  system  in,  prior  to  1909, 
252. 

New  York  City  Police  Department, 
classification  of  offenses  by,  85  f., 
88  ff.,  100  ff.,  135  ff.,  143,  177  ff.,  198 
ff.,  460  ff..  472  ff.,  478  f.  See  also 
Chastity,    Property. 


New  York  City  Workhouse,  passim. 
See  especially  10,  15,  21  ff.,  55,  63, 
86  ff.,  107  ff..  Ill,  112  ff.,  121  ff.,  128 
ff.,  135  ff.,  139  ff.,  143,  148  f.,  151  ff., 
157  ff.,  169  ff.,  206,  218  f.,  230  ff., 
253,  255  ff.,  258  f.,  264  f.,  267, 
271,  274  f.,  291  ff.,  307  f.,  313  ff., 
330  f.,  335  ff.,  363,  368  f..  381  f., 
384  ff.,  408  f.,  421,  429,  437,  439  ff., 
456  f. 

New  York  County  Penitentiary, 
passlui.  See  especially  8,  15,  20  f., 
63,  70,  86  ff.,  107  ff..  Ill,  112  ff.,  121 
ff.,  128  ff.,  135  ff.,  139  ff.,  143,  148  f., 
151  ff..  157  ff.,  168  ff.,  208  ff.,  230  ff., 
253,  254  ff.,  258  f.,  264  f.,  267  f.,  271, 
274,  291  ff.,  307  f.,  313  ff..  330  f.,  335 
ff.,  363,  368  f..  381  f.,  384  ff.,  408  f., 
421,  429.  437,  439  ff.,  454  f. 

New  York  State,  present  study  limited 
to  cases  committed  from,  5,  13,  305 ; 
relative  numbers  of  men  and  women 
committed  to  state  prison  in,  7  f . ; 
enumeration  of  groups  of  delinquent 
women  of,  not  included  in  present 
study,  27  f . ;  meanings  for  term 
"Vagrants"  in,  86 ;  number  of  per- 
sons per  family  in,  235 ;  provisions 
of  Compulsory  Education  Law  in, 
257;  amount  of  illiteracy  in  general 
female  population  over  ten  years  of 
age  in,  290  ff. ;  provisions  of  Child 
Labor  Law  in,  306;  percentage  of 
general  population  of,  working  be- 
tween ten  and  fourteen  years  of  age, 
306  f . ;  comparison  of  females  over 
fifteen  years  of  age  in,  with  women 
delinquents  with  respect  to  kind  of 
work  done,  320  ff. ;  wage  statistics 
for  certain  industries  in,  358  f. 

New  York  State  Prisons,  relative 
numbers  of  men  and  women  com- 
mitted to,  7  f.  See  also  Auburn, 
Sing  Sing,  State  Prison  for  Women 
at  Auburn,   N.  Y. 

New  York  State  Reformatories.  See 
Albion,  Bedford  Hills,  Elmira. 

Night  Court  for  Women  for  Boroughs 
of  Manhattan  and  Bronx,  probation 
group  made  up  of  women  placed  on 
probation  through,    15,  25    f. 

Ninth   District   Court,    15. 

Non  -  English  -  speaking,  performance 
tests  for,  cases,  57,  59;  necessity  of 
excluding,  cases  from  majority  of 
mental  tests,  58  f . ;  comparison  of 
mental  capacity  of,  cases  with  that 
of  English-speaking  cases,  484  f. 

Norsworthy,  N.,  44  note. 


540 


INDEX 


O 

Occupational  history,  relation  of,  to 
delinquency,  304  ff.,  526  f.  Sec  also 
Wage,_  Work. 

Occupations,  classification  of,  311  f., 
324  f . ;  distribution  of  delinquent 
women  with  reference  to,  313  fif. ; 
comparison  of  delinquent  women 
with  general  female  population  with 
respect  to,  320  ff. ;  relation  between, 
and  school  grade,  326  ff. ;  relation 
between,  and  excellence  of  work 
record,  370  ff. ;  relation  between,  and 
mental  capacity,  500  ff.  See  also 
Work. 

Offenders,  use  of  term,  13,  15 ;  women, 
who  escape  detection,  28  f.,  417,  524. 
See  also  Criminals,  Convicts,  Delin- 
quents, Felons,  Misdemeanants. 

Oft'ense,  nature  of  present,  for  institu- 
tional groups  and  for  total,  88  ff.,  145 ; 
comparison  of  female  felons  with 
male  felons  with  respect  to  nature 
of,  100  ff. ;  relation  between  number 
of  convictions  and  nature  of,  116  ff. ; 
relation  between  age  at  first  convic- 
tion and  nature  of,  131  ff. ;  nature  of 
first,  for  institutional  groups  and  for 
total,  135  ff.,  146;  nature  of,  for 
women  who  have  been  juvenile  de- 
linquents, 143 ;  comparison  of  nativ- 
ity groups  with  respect  to  nature  oi 
present,  177  ff. ;  comparison  of  nativ- 
ity groups  with  respect  to  nature  of 
first,  198  ff. ;  data  regarding  first  sex, 
380  ff.;  nature  of  present,  in  rela- 
tion to  mental  capacity,  460  ff. ; 
nature  of  first,  in  relation  to  mental 
capacity,  472  ff.  See  also  Felonies, 
Misdemeanors,  New  York  City  Po- 
lice  Department   Classification. 

Ohio  Penitentiary,  comparison  of,  tnen 
with  New  York  Penitentiary  women 
with  respect  to  mental  capacity,  455 
ff. 

Ordahl,  George,  456. 
Ordahl,  Louise  E.,  456. 
Osborne,  Thomas  Mott,  4. 


Partial  correlation  coefficient,  defined, 
34.     See  also  Relationships. 

Paterson,  D.  G..  44  note. 

Pearson.  Karl,  52  ff.,  114  note. 

Penitentiaries.  See  New  York  County 
Penitentiary,  Ohio  Penitentiary. 


Penology,  evolution  of  present-day,  3 
ff. 

Performance  tests,  selection  of  group 
of,  for  use  where  language  factor  is 
important,  57 ;  correlation  of,  with 
other  series  of  tests,  58. 

Personal  service,  312  ff. 

Pintner,  R.,  44,  51,  57. 

Police  Department,  New  York  City. 
See  New  York  City  Police  Depart- 
ment. 

Pregnancies,  number  of,  238. 

Prisons.    See  New  York  State  prisons. 

Private  institutions,  27. 

Probation  group,  passim.  See  especial- 
h  15,  25  ff.,  63,  86  ff.,  107  ff..  Ill, 
n2  ff.,  121  ff.,  128  ff.,  135  ff.,  139  ff., 
143,  148  f.,  151  ff.,  157  ff..  168  ff., 
208  ff.,  230  ff.,  253,  255  ff.,  258  f.,  264 
f.,  267,  271,  274  f.,  291  ff.,  313  ff., 
324,  330  f.,  335  ff.,  363,  368  f.,  381  f., 
384  ff.,  408,  42 1_,  429,  437,  439  ff. 

Professional  service,  312  ff. 

Property  rights,  offenses  against,  119 
ff.,  131  ff.,  177  ff..  460  ff.,  472  ff., 
478.  See  also  Offense,  New  York 
City  Police  Department  Classifica- 
tion of  Offenses. 

Prostitutes,  study  of,  by  Dr.  Davis, 
160,  324;  definition  of  term,  385; 
percentages  of,  by  institutions  and 
by  nativity  groups,  385  ff. ;  special 
study  of,  391  ff. ;  comparison  of,  with 
non-prostitutes,  with  respect  to  men- 
tal  capacity,   513   f. 

Prostitution,  length  of  time  in,  389  f., 
521  f.;  age  at  entering,  391  ff.,  519  f. 
See  also  Chastity,  Offense,  Sex. 

Protestants.     See  Religion. 

Psvchological  examination,  methods 
oi,  36  ff. 


R 


Rape,  or  consent  at  first  sex  offense, 
381  ff. 

Recidivists,  defined,  126,  191  note ;  per- 
centages of,  and  first  offenders  by 
institutional  groups,  126  f. ;  percent- 
ages of,  and  first  offenders  by  na- 
tivity and  color  groups,  188  ff. ;  men- 
tal capacity  of,  and  first  offenders, 
468  ff. 

Relationships,  methods  of  expressing, 
33  f. 

Religion,  163  ff. 

Restaurant  and  hotel  work,  312  ff. 

Richmond,  Mary  E.,  60. 

Rosanoff,  A.,  44. 


INDEX 


541 


Rossolimo,  G.,  51. 
Rossy,  C.  S.,  454. 
Riiml,  Beardslcy,  53. 
Russell  Sage  Foundation,  60. 


School,  verification  of,  record,  252  flf. ; 
kind  of,  attended,  254  f . ;  regularity 
of,  attendance,  255  f . ;  age  at  leav- 
ing, 250,  256  ff.,  494  ff.;  number  of 
vears  in,  264  fif.,  494,  496;  grade 
finished  in,  270  ff.,  326  fif.,  348,  351 
ff..  2,7 i^  375,  494,  496  f.  See  also 
Education. 

Sex,  history  of,  irregularities,  380  ff. ; 
conditions  relating  to  first,  offense, 
380  ff. ;  source  of  first,  instruction, 
383  ft'. ;  classification  of  v^fomen  de- 
linquents by  degree  of,  irregularity, 

•  385  ff. ;  mental  capacity  and  classi- 
fication as,  offenders,  512  ff.  See 
also  Chastity,  Prostitution. 

Simon.  Th.,  43  note. 

Sing  Sing  Prison,  7  f.,  8  note,  17,  127, 
146,  243,  325. 

Socialists,  304  f..  379. 

Standard  deviation  (a),  as  measure  of 
variability,  32;  of  the  average  as  in- 
dex of  reservation,  34;  of  difference 
in  relation  to  observed  difference,  34 
f.,  109,  112,  114;  use  of,  in  present 
study  instead  of  P.  E.,  35 ;  device 
for  indicating,  graphically,  35 ;  use 
of,  in  obtaining  "standings,"  56  f. 

Stanford-Binet  Scale,  use  of,  as  meas- 
ure of  mental  capacity,  39,  42,  43,  47 
f . ;  correlation  of,  with  judgments  of 
mental  capacity,  56;  correlation  of, 
with  other  tests,  58;  comparison  of 
mental  capacity  of  groups  on  basis 
of,  416  ff.,  447  "ff.,  452  f.,  483  f.,  496. 

State  Prison  for  Women  at  Auburn, 
N.  Y.,  passim.  See  especially  15, 
17  f.,  55.  63,  70,  72.  86  ff.,  107  ff., 
110,  112  ff.,  121  ff.,  128  ff.,  135  ff., 
139  ff.,  143,  148  ff..  152  f.,  157  ff.,  168 
ff.,  208  ff.,  230  ff..  253.  254  ff.,  258  f.. 
264  ff.,  271.  273.  275,  291  ff.,  307,  313 
ff.,  330  f.,  335  ff.,  363,  368  f.,  381  f., 
384  ff.,  408  f.,  421,  429,  437  f.,  440  ff., 
450  ff. 

State  prisons.     See  New  York  State 

prisons. 
State  reformatories.    See  Albion,  Bed- 
ford Hills,  Elmira. 
"Statement    of    Girl,"   description   and 
illustrative   copy   of    folder    for    re- 
cording, 64  ff. 


Statistical  reservations,  discussed,  34  f. 

Stcnqiiist.  J.  L.,  45. 

Stores,  work  in,  312  ff. 

Sydcnstrickcr,  Edgar,  359  f. 

Sylvester,  R.  H.,  45. 

Syphilis.    See  Venereal  disease. 


Terman,  L.  M.,  41,  43,  417  ff.,  424. 

Test  Aggregate,  obtained  by  'combin- 
ing other  series  of  tests,  58;  restric- 
tion of  use  of,  to  intercomparisons 
within  present  group,  58,  415;  re- 
striction of  use  of,  to  English-speak- 
ing cases,  58  f . ;  relationship  of  men- 
tal capacity  as  measured  by,  to  other 
factors,  437  ff..  460  ff.,  485  ff. 

Tests,  factors  affecting  choice  of,  for 
measuring  mental  capacity,  38  f . ;  pre- 
liminary series  of,  41  ff. ;  selection 
of,  for  present  study,  46  ff.,  55  ff. ; 
reliability  of,  52  ff.  See  also  Educa- 
tional tests. 

Thompson,  H.  B.,  45. 

Thorndike,  E.  L.,  46,  52,  259,  260 
note,  261. 

Tobacco,  use  of,  147,  153,  157  ff. 

Toivn,  C.  H.,  43  note. 

Trabue,  M.  R.,  44. 

Trabue  completion  test  (Scale  A),  51, 
56,  291,  294  f. 

Tredgold,  A.  P.,  413  tiote. 


U 


United  States,  years  in,  and  number  of 
convictions.  190  f. ;  age  at  coming  to, 
and  number  of  convictions,  190,  192 
ff. 

V 

Variability,  importance  of  measuring, 
of  groups.  See  also  Standard  devia- 
tion. 

Vaudeville  performers,  312  ff. 

Venereal  disease,  152,  241  f.,  408  ff., 
516,   518_  f. 

Verified  History  blank,  76  ff. 


W 


Wage,  difficulties  in  study  of,  328.  330; 
in  first  job.  330  ff.,  343  ff.,  507;  in 
latest  job,  335  f.,  343  ff . ;  at  first  con- 
viction,  ZZ7   f.,   343    ff. ;    at   present 


542 


INDEX 


conviction,  339  f.,  343  ff. ;  average, 
for  prevailing  work,  341  fif. ;  average, 
in  relation  to  other  factors,  348  ff., 
504  ff. ;  comparison  of  average, 
of  delinquent  women  with  that 
of  women  of  general  population, 
358  ff. 

Wassermann  test,  408  ff.,  412,  522. 

Weidcnsall.  Jean,  16,  42,  415. 

Wells,  F.  L.,  44,  45,  49,  50,  51. 

Western  House  of  Refuge,  Albion, 
N.  Y.    See  Albion. 

Whipple,  G.  M.,  44,  45. 

Williams,  J.  H.,  416. 

Women,  present  study  concerned  with, 
delinquents,  5  ff. ;  comparison  of,  de- 
linquents with,  of  general  popula- 
tion, 5  ff.,  171  ff.,  259  ff.,  288,  290 
ff.,  320  ff.,  358  ff.,  413  ff. ;  comparison 
of  number  of  men  with  number  of, 
committed  to  state  prisons  in  New 
York,  7  ff.,  17;  comparison  of,  de- 
linquents with  men  delinquents,  7  ff., 
100  ff.,  127,  129  ff.,  159,_  449  ff.; 
groups  of  delinquent,  studied,  13  ff. 
See  also  Delinquents. 

Woodzvorth,  R.  S.,  44,  45,  50,  56. 

Woody,  C,  51. 

Woolley,  Helen  T.,  42  f.,  48  f.,  57,  415. 

Woolley  series  of  tests,  39,  48  ff.,  432  f. 

Work,  age  at  starting,  306  ff. ;  classi- 
fication of  kinds  of,  311  f. ;  kind  of. 


in  first  job,  313  f.,  325,  327;  kind  of, 
in  latest  job,  315  f.,  325,  327;  kind 
of,  at  first  conviction,  316  f.,  325, 
327;  kind  of,  at  present  conviction, 
317  f.,  325,  327;  prevailing,  of  women 
delinquents,  318  ff.,  324  ff. ;  compari- 
son of  prevailing,  of  women  delin- 
quents with  that  of  women  of  gen- 
eral population,  320  ff. ;  relationship 
between  kind  of  prevailing,  and 
grade  finished,  326  ff. ;  average  wage 
for  prevailing,  341  ff. ;  regularity  of, 
361  ff. ;  total  estimate  of,  record, 
364  ff. ;  summary  regarding,  records, 
377  ff.,  526;  mental  capacity  and  kind 
of,  500  ff. ;  mental  capacity  and  esti- 
mates of,  record,  507  ff.  See  also 
Wage. 
Workhouse.  See  New  York  City 
Workhouse. 


Yerkes,  R.  M.,  43,  424  f. 

Yerkes-Bridges  Point  Scale,  use  of,  as 
measure  of  mental  capacity,  42,  43, 
47  f . ;  correlation  of,  with  judgments 
of  mental  capacity,  56;  correlation 
of,  with  other  tests,  58;  comparison 
of  mental  capacity  of  groups  on 
basis  of,  415,  424  ff.,  450  ff.,  455  ff., 
482  ff. 


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